On Friday, April 15, students all over the country will participate in a silent protest, communicating volumes about what they don't know and have not been allowed to learn.
Students observing the Day of Silence will be protesting the alleged system-wide victimization of homosexuals, bisexuals, transsexuals, intersexed, queer and questioning students, teachers, janitors, bus drivers and school superintendents, based on heteronormativity and homophobia, stemming from outworn arguments and old attitudes, inevitably leading to bullying and violence.
Got it? Or maybe you are sensing a monumental con job here?
If that's your impression, you would be correct. The Day of Silence, a "student-led" event sponsored for the umpteenth year by the very adult Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), exemplifies the worst of current educational philosophy in the public schools.
In a word, it's dumb.
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The DOS operates at the most elementary level of manipulation, propaganda and social engineering. It takes "social justice" nonsense, stirs in unfounded claims of "civil rights," adds a helping of knee-jerk anti-religious prejudice, swirls in teen rebellion, and simmers with disconnected stories of tragedy and heartbreak. Out comes a Hitler Youth product ready to do battle with anyone holding traditional moral values or even common sense.
As we taxpayers take a harder look at the strong-arm tactics of teachers' unions and their leftist cronies, let's examine what kind of product we are getting for our money. For those schools that enthusiastically back, or even allow the likes of the Day of Silence, the product is the tragically lobotomized young mind.
But it's a product that's been supported by the National Education Association, which contributes to GLSEN ( and a host of other "gay" groups) with teachers' dues money. In Ohio, Wisconsin and other non-"right-to-work" states, teachers are compelled to finance this poison.
Let's take one student who emailed me recently. Taylor wondered why I was opposed to the Day of Silence. He was unusual because he described himself as a "proud straight supporter" of the event.
Students like Taylor are the products of an intellectually bankrupt educational system, of which the DOS is a stunning example. Now, not all schools actively involve themselves in this phony "anti-bullying" observance, but some do. Yet the principles guiding the DOS are expressed in numerous diversity lessons, anti-harassment programs and multicultural studies that populate most public school curricula.
The DOS takes one foundational myth – that some people are "born gay" – and dares only the most twisted fundamentalist to challenge this assumption.
Once that intimidation hurdle is crossed, the next pile of manure transformed into perfume is the issue of outcomes. "Don't you dare mention the health risks, or talk about what homosexuals actually do – that's hateful!"
Now, these precious young minds have already been carefully molded to understand that once someone – anyone – slaps the label of "hate" on an idea, a person, or a group, it goes into a special category where, ironically, no tolerance or even fact-checking is needed. The appropriate response is to "hate" this thing, as our godless schools help children sort through the dumbed-down version of good vs. evil.
Here's what "good" is on the Day of Silence: 13-year-old boys who dress like girls and no one counsels or challenges them, unless they want to be accused of harassment. It's also good if two 15-year-old girls declare themselves lesbians, born that way, of course. And that 17-year-old bright "gay" boy who speaks at the "Breaking the Silence" rally? He may have HIV by the time he's 21. He may have it already.
But it would be hateful to provide any information that upsets his carefully constructed false identity, supported by noble phrases lifted from student pro-"gay" Facebook pages or websites like GLSEN or the "Safe Schools" page on the NEA website – all leading him to early sodomy. He would feel uncomfortable, you see, not supported, maybe even "hated," so he must believe any warning is "unsafe."
Sometimes students are actively discouraged from examining another viewpoint. They are told what these other views offer ("bias, fear of those who are different, ignorance, religious prejudice"), so there's no need to fact-check, no review of history and, heavens, no review of public-health statistics even from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
I've been speaking to high-school groups for about 10 years on this subject. I tell them there's no evidence people are born homosexual or born "in the wrong sex body," even quoting from major homosexual publications. I provide PowerPoint slides directly from the CDC website about the high risk of HIV for males who have sex with males (MSM).
And I talk about the folks who have left homosexuality. While there are always the bright lights in the class who truly listen and ruminate, most, sadly, are scoffers who have nothing more intelligent to ask than, "Why do you hate homosexuals so much?" or the tried and true, "How would same-sex marriage hurt your marriage?" Or there's always the clincher: "Jesus never said anything about homosexuality!"
It's depressing, and not just about this issue. It's depressing that so many young people can't think objectively, have little curiosity about anything outside themselves and lack common sense. No wonder. Some teachers are products of blind "gay rights" and social-justice indoctrination. "Progress" will only be achieved, they think, when their students escape faith and family.
So back to Taylor. Not to pick on him, but he wrote:
People are homosexual because that is who they are. If they think there is something wrong with them because people around them say its not okay then they are not surrounded by people who love and care about them. We cant end discrimination and hate with people who dont except people the way they are. [sic]
Translation: It's more important to be comfortable than anything else, even if you are in danger. And "discrimination" must be overcome, whatever, uh, that is.
I could have written poor Taylor back again and asked him why his disagreement with me would not qualify as "discrimination," but something told me he would not get my point. Or else, he might feel justified because I can be put into the pre-assigned "hate" category, and one doesn't spend much time debating with "haters" – they can be safely dismissed.
Perhaps Taylor will mature into a fine young man with a strong sense of honor and a keen intelligence. But that's more likely to happen if he steers clear of the "Duh" of Silence.
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Linda Harvey is president of Mission America and hosts a radio show in Ohio.