I refuse to stay silent I've participated in the day of silence twice now The first time in 8th grade We got cards that explained why we weren't speaking I stayed silent the whole day And felt quite special about it too Lunch was a long game of charades And I thought to myself "I can't wait for the next day of silence." And I hardly thought about why I was being silent To begin with
9th grade I did it again I brought a whole pack of sticky notes with me And by the end of the day, I felt the need to plant a tree To pay the world back for all the paper wasted I broke my silence by lunch time Because my friend needed to tell me How much she wanted to ask this girl out And I wanted to ask this boy out And I went home that night Hardly thinking about why I was (mostly) silent that day
April 11th would be my third year Participating in the Day Of Silence If I was participating Which I won't be Not become I'm homophobic or anything Oh, no But I began to think about being silent And what it accomplished What does it accomplish? I realize it's supposed to be symbolic Of LGBT youth whose voices are forever silenced Because they decided their life should end On their own terms Suicide is a taboo word A stigmatized topic I'm not gay, or bi, or trans But there are nights When suicide looks easier But I can't tell anyone I feel like this Because no one likes discussing ugly things And we'd rather live with the pretty lies And it's much easier to fake a smile Than lose all my friends So what kind of message are we sending When we stay silent on subjects like suicide And students stay silent Because they don't want to speak in class And then feel like they're doing the world a favor Making some political statement I want to tell the story Of the girl who got kicked out of her house For bringing another girl home I want to share the tragedy Of the boy, bullet in brain Because he was born a she I want to be the voice Saying "It's okay." Not censoring my words Maybe I'm misinterpreting What the Day Of Silence is all about But at least I have the power to say You will never silence me
I've been thinking about the day of silence a lot recently, and personally I think it's *******. It's a good idea and I think that LGBT suicide and suicide in general needs to be more well known but spreading a message by being silent just seems counterintuitive and stupid to me. In case you don't know what the day of silence is, its website described it as "The Day of Silence is a student-led national event that brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. Students from middle school to college take a vow of silence in an effort to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior by illustrating the silencing effect of bullying and harassment on LGBT students and those perceived to be LGBT."