Tomorrow is the Day of Silence. Many high school students across the nation will experience the silent demonstration by their peers all day, and possibly receive materials produced by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) through their local GSA club. It's quite possible that many school administrators and teachers will also partake in the demonstration, lecturing students about GLBT issues.
It's important that GLSEN, for the most part, be opposed and not allowed to take free reign with the educational system. I'm not talking about opposing the goal of safer schools—but that isn't GLSEN's only goal, or even their primary one.
GLSEN is all about promoting the mistaken belief that homosexuality, bisexuality and transgenderism are innate, unchangeable, and should be unconditionally celebrated by all. Furthermore, they encourage young people to make unhealthy and often dangerous lifestyle choices. It's all over their programs and materials.
For instance, take a look at their "recommended reading" for 7th through 12th graders: books like Rainbow Boys, a fictional narrative in which a teen boy has an anonymous sexual encounter with an older man. Or Revolutionary Voices, which calls prostitution an "empowering experience." The book Free Your Mind urges young people to leave their churches and cut family members out of their lives if they aren't gay-affirming, telling them they can make more "meaningful relationships" via gay and lesbian chat rooms.
Massachusetts parents were outraged when GLSEN, using state funds, hosted a workshop for hundreds of students in which they promoted dangerous sexual activities that I can't even describe to you without this being an X-rated post. Despite the fall-out from the first time this happened, the workshop returned the next year, minus a few endorsements.
GLSEN knows its real agenda is extremely controversial, which is why they work so hard to bar other points of view from the school system, create hostility against opposing beliefs, and keep parents out of the loop.
But your average student participating in the Day of Silence has no idea what GLSEN is all about. This organization works hard to make its image all about tolerance, safer schools, ending harassment, etc. These are admirable goals, and that's what draws students to buy into their events and programs.
While the Day of Silence is part of an agenda that's nothing like real tolerance, for most of the speechless students you'll encounter on Wednesday, it is just about creating a safe environment. Which makes their goal and yours pretty similar.
The Day of Truth isn't about politically defeating gay-identified people, and it certainly isn't about defending bullying or true bigotry. We're proclaiming the fact that God has created us with a beautiful design, and that those who struggle with their sexuality and don't want to be gay (and there's lots of them) don't have to be. And we are saying that true tolerance means we can get along even when we disagree.
Day of Truth events from coast to coast, tomorrow night: