Today is the Day of Silence, a day when students don’t speak in order to address issues of harassment and bullying in schools. It is not neccessarily specific to the protection of LGBT students, except that of course LGBT and gender variant students tend to be the target of most of the harassment.
From NCTE:
At NCTE, we believe passionately in the rights of all children and young people to go to school and be free from bullying and harassment. Learning needs to take place in an environment where children are safe — physically as well as emotionally — and can express their identities as they grow and develop. Transgender children and teens deserve these rights as much as every other student in our schools.
This year’s Day of Silence is dedicated to Lawrence King.
GLSEN is the organization who started this event, and you can find out more about it at their website.
Here in Portland, the local news coverage is focusing on a few wingnuts that are keeping there kids out of school today 🙁