Speaking with silence

Gathered at Showalter Fountain, members of the GLBT community and their allies greeted each other with hugs and smiles. But no one spoke.\nThey stood expectantly, waiting to begin their march. Soon, it was time -- time to break the day's silence.\nCarrying signs and murals, they marched to the Sample Gates, slowing only to navigate the turns on the way. Onlookers stopped to watch, looking up from their conversations, books or classes as the procession went by. \nAt the Sample Gates, the group stood in a circle and waited, silently counting down for the clock tower bell to strike 5 p.m. \nWhen the clock was done chiming, the silence was broken. Participants in the National Day of Silence whistled, yelled and made noise.\nWednesday afternoon's march concluded the Day of Silence, a day to show support for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. By giving up their voices for the day, supporters symbolically showed they understand the silence gays endure every day.\nBarry Magee, a graduate student and assistant director of the CommUNITY educators program at Residential Programs and Services, which helped to organize the day, said he thought the day went well. \n"We had a much larger turnout than last year, overall through the whole day," Magee said. "Our goal was to make silence visible, and I think we did that in a better way than years before." \nOUT president Jason Jones, a senior, said he agreed.\n"Every year more people are supportive," he said. "Quite a few people participated. The circle around the Sample Gates was big this year."\nAfter breaking the silence, people said what word described their experiences of the day. Hope, appreciation, frustration, inspiration, courage, isolation, wonderful, annoyance, supportive and hard were some of the words used.\nOnce the marchers reached the Sample Gates, the crowd broke into small groups to discuss participants' experiences. A poem was read and the marchers were free to go, but some remained to mingle.\nFreshman Daniel Vergara participated to show support for his friends and others.\n"I have some gay friends, and this was a great way to show support," Vergara said. "I was silent as much as I could be. I won't lie and say I was silent the whole day."\nDaisy Rodriguez, graduate assistant for the CommUNITY Educators, was silent all day. She was out of town for the Day of Silence last year and said she was excited to participate this year, describing the experience as awesome and amazing.\n"When people would start talking to me, I would point to my button and they would suddenly stop the conversation," Rodriguez said. "Their intentions were to be supportive, and they didn't want to interfere with what I was doing."\nRodriguez said she used alternate means to communicate, including whiteboards, chalkboards and notepads. \n"I helped to lead a staff meeting from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., and it was a silent meeting," she said. "It was hard because we had to gather all of the material beforehand and use the whiteboard to communicate. When I saw friends, I would get out my notepad to communicate, and then they would get paper out and we would write back and forth. This really moved me."\nJones said he thought people were supportive once they knew what he was doing.\n"I worked at the center desk today from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., and I was silent. When people came up with questions, I would just point to my button and explain using my hands or writing the answers," Jones said.\nMagee and Jones agree many people around campus were supportive. \nRodriguez echoed the feeling of support.\n"Before my meeting I needed tape and I saw a custodian," Rodriguez said. "I wrote down on the white board that I need tape and he got me tape. It was great. He didn't freak out or anything."\nRebecca Jimenez, an ordained Baptist minister from Campus Ministries, participated to show support for the GLBT community, a community she said is usually shunned by Christianity. Jimenez said religion usually does not support the GLBT community. \n"Showing support is a justice issue," she said. "There are other ways to be Christian than to be exclusive, condemning and judgmental. Christianity is about justice and compassion."\nJimenez was silent for the last part of the day, and she said she hopes that 10 times the number of people participate next year. She said she hopes more people, even if they do not participate, are respectful.\n"I hope that as time goes by people don't drive by and ridicule," she said.\nJones said he hopes people come away from the day with a new sense of what silence really means.\n"We wanted them to hear the kinds of silence that exists in the GLBT community, and we hope we conveyed that message. It was an excellent day."\nFreshman Rachel Korman participated to be supportive.\n"I just wanted to be more visually supportive with ribbons and buttons," she said.\nMagee said today was a day of bonding.\n"When people saw others with buttons there was a common bond," he said. "They knew they were trying to work together for a common goal, gay or straight"