A couple of weeks ago, there was a day of silence in honor of everything that Gay people have to go through on a daily basis. Since I believe that everyone should be equal, I tried to participate. I didn't last the whole day. I didn't even last half.
This is the girl who talks to cheer people up and tell and embarrassing story and even give advice whenever she can. Then put this girl in a room full of other people who are all tired from the morning and upset about being at school. Then give her a math test (when she's 2 grades ahead in math and in honors) and remind her that she can't speak. Needless to say, I was starting to have severe anxiety.
I ended up talking after the math test because I couldn't take it any more ( and also because I forgot). But it made me think about a couple of things. How does being silent help? If you are in a room of teenagers all talking and laughing, who's to notice that you're not saying a word? There weren't enough people participating to make a noticeable impact on any 16 year old. Many people just didn't notice. Someone told me that they were being silent because that's what Gandhi did. Maybe I have my facts wrong, but he wasn't silent, he was nonviolent. He believed in civil disobedience not sitting quietly and hoping someone notices.
And then I thought about it some more. Maybe the silence is symbolic to everything that gay people have to endure, silently. Before they come out, many (most?) feel as if their family is going to abandon them and cast them out. They feel as if their friends will push them away. And that has happened before. There have been extremely conservative families who have disowned their children just for being gay, something that existed even before the bible was written.
That thought brought me on to think about the country I live in, America. We pride ourselves in being free. The bill of rights says we have the right to freedom of religion, and the constitution calls for a separation between church and state, and equality for all. So when did this become a lie? When did "God Bless America" become something written on all of our money? When did religion's idea of gays being blasphemous keep them from getting married? When was the separation between church and state erased?
So now that I sound like a conspiracy theorist, I'm trying to think of how to fix this. All that I can think is " just wait until they're out of office, then the kids of our age who believe in equality can come in and fix our country. I think the saddest part about this epiphany about gays and religion is that I'm starting to think we will be the last of the first world countries to give rights to the people who live in the "land of the free"
