A Day of Silence for Rights

April 23, 2010  
Filed under Feature

“Day of silence for LGBT.”

This was the note that senior Crycella Freitag carried around with her on Friday, April 16. A day of silence is donated to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender people on the second Friday in April. This day represents the silence enforced on these minorities based on the amount of bullying they endure on a day to day basis.

“I wanted to do it because gay rights are something I have supported my whole life. I went to my first gay rights festival when I was nine. I just wanted to bring the Day of Silence here to Ottawa,” Freitag said.

Freitag had positive feedback on her participation for the most part.

“Most people said that’s cool, or I’m proud of you,” she said.

Each year the event has grown and now thousands of students around the United States participate. Becoming the single largest student-led action; the Day of Silence was founded in 1996. Freitag came across the event while doing a research paper her junior year for Candie Campbell’s American history class.

“I did my paper over how gay rights have effected the country,” Freitag said.

Freitag admitted that it was awfully difficult to stay silent for a whole day. However, she had her solid reasons for what she did and in the end, she was successful.

“I’d like it to be school-wide next year, but I won’t be here. I just want more people to support the day and the LGBT’s rights,” she said.

For more Day of Silence information visit http://www.dayofsilence.org/content/getinformation.html.

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Abby New

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