LGBT day of silence...

For those of you who know me, you know that I have a lot to say. I mean, I was nearly awarded "most talkative" my senior year of high school, loosing only to a girl who talked more about everyone else than everyone else. So I like to talk. Fact.

But this year, I have decided to participate in GLSEN's dayofsilence.org campaign. I have men and women that I love who identify as LGBTQA, and until they are treated as human beings instead of mistakes or second-class citizens, I will participate in raising awareness and standing beside them for equality.

Now let's address the selfish aspect of this whole brouhaha: Have you ever noticed that when you don't talk to people, they automatically assume you are mad at them? I have had a class (speech class, nonetheless) and am well into my SGA office hours for the day, and am struggling with how I am being percieved by those around me. Worse than that, I can see the perception of other's reflected in my silence, and that is a huge burden **SPOILER ALERT: there will be a life lesson coming up that illustrates that...STAY TUNED**

There have been times when I have been given a platform for my words (literally, even) and so I feel that I know better than most the responsibility that words have. And when people expect that acting in your authority means to speak to them...and then you don't deliver...they get pissed off, for lack of a better term.

And dammit, I am funny! I have funny things to say. And I am smart! I have good things to add. But I can't today, and I won't today, because I am more interested in dedicating the impact of my silence to the plight of others.

So it makes me wonder...if my words serve the purpose of building others up and showing them how society perceives them, what do your words do? What have your words taught others about themselves today?

So here goes the global application of this:

It is 2012, and there are still, still, STILL people in our world, in our nation, in our schools who can not be themselves.

They live in fear of words slipping out of their mouths that will forever brand them as less-than.

They live as unwilling participants of a culture of judgement and unnatural expectations that love should be packaged in the right body.

They wait for the inevitable words that will chip away another piece of their identity, of their tenderness and their goodness.

There are so many who can't say what their hearts are screaming to say, and to honour them, I will give up my freedom of speech.

It's the least I can do.