Should we really be silent?

By Ryan Briscoe
Cardinal Staff

The LGBT Day of Silence has served to bring attention to anti-LGBT behavior in order to create safer learning environments since 1996. Participants in the event used April 17 as a day to draw attention, through personal silence, to the discrimination many students have suffered because of their sexual orientation.

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Keeping all of this in mind, I think this is a good moment to set aside one or two ideas - which are charged with a militant political agenda and often associated with the LGBT Day of Silence - in order to consider larger problem, one which the Day of Silence draws attention to. This larger crisis is the fight for basic respect among fellow human beings. Regardless of your personal views concerning homosexuality and the lifestyles associated with it, the dignity shared by all human persons is never to be over-looked! Concisely put, the harassment of gays is disgusting and has no place in a society that claims to be civilized and free.

Do not for an instant think that our beloved university is exempt from the cultural practices in which it is acceptable to show aggression toward homosexuals. In its simplest form, this violence can take the form of a joke or name-calling but often accelerates to property damage (which has happened at SMU) or even physical confrontations (heaven-forbid!). It is abhorrent to think that members of our community could be treated by their peers in such a way.

This day is not focused on a certain acceptance of a way of life, nor is its purpose to condone the acts of certain individuals. Rather, it is a day to recognize the reverence we owe to our fellow human beings. Disagreeing with an individual’s lifestyle or his or her choices - and even respectfully voicing that disagreement - is radically different from actively persecuting those who may think differently from you. You don’t have to remain silent about a lifestyle you disagree with, but you MUST initiate a dialogue based in charity and fed by compassion. Furthermore, be especially conscious to always separate the judgment of an action from the judgment of an individual.

Actions that are provocative, insolent and discourteous in their nature have to stop! Recognize the worth and personhood of those around you, and act in a manner that demonstrates your understanding of the value of all individuals.