Students shared stories to start day of silence

Sophomore Barton Girdwood stood on the small stage in the IMU Gallery wearing a brown jacket with an olive green shirt underneath. His head was topped with a gray baseball cap as he shared his story with the crowd.

Girdwood, along with other students, gathered Thursday to tell their stories pertaining to the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community as a kickoff event for the pledge of silence they will take Friday.

“When I came out, people started noticing my gay lisp, and I stopped wearing pink polo shirts,” Girdwood said. “Which is really ironic because you see a lot of frat boys wearing them today, and no one thinks they are gay.”

The pledge of silence event is sponsored in part by the CommUNITY Education Program through Residential Programs and Services.

It allows students to reflect on the injustices within the GLBT community, said junior and Community Educator Tari Morales.

“We want others to be aware of acts of discrimination in our community that most people don’t know much about. Overall we want to make it a safer community for everyone,” Morales said.

At the kickoff event students shared experiences including coming out, living in intolerant households and eating rainbow ice cream.

An IU freshman spoke about living with her homophobic stepfather and the comment he told her that finally made her shut down.

“He said, ‘I don’t like it when you talk about your gay friends at the dinner table,’” she said. “It was the most offensive thing anyone has said to me.”

Her mom eventually divorced her stepfather about six months after this incident, she said.

“What came out of this event was really good,” she said. “I couldn’t look at GLBT issues as critically if I had come from a cookie-cutter family.”

Students who wish to take the pledge of silence Friday had the opportunity to receive lime green T-shirts that were handed out around campus Thursday.

“I encourage people to wear their shirts tomorrow,” Morales said. “We want the silence we create to represent the silence bullying has caused.”

There will be a silent march around campus Friday at 4 p.m. beginning at the Showalter Fountain. A breaking of the silence event begins at 5 p.m. in the Collins Coffeehouse.