Thanks, Teen Vogue!
Today, thousands of students across the country, with the support of educators, Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) and GLSEN chapters, will participate in GLSEN’s Day of Silence, an annual international event that brings attention to the name-calling, bullying, and harassment experienced by LGBTQ youth in schools.
Students take a vow of silence as a symbol of the silencing effect of anti-LGBTQ language and bullying. This year, the theme is “Silence is Ours,” and the focus is on reclaiming this silence, shifting it from something forced upon LGBTQ students to a strategic tool they use to advocate for safe and affirming schools.
GLSEN’s Day of Silence is one of the largest student-led actions in the country, with students from more than 8,000 middle and high schools, colleges, and universities in every state and 70 countries around the world having participated in the past.
According to GLSEN’s most recent National School Climate Survey, one of few surveys on the school experiences of LGBTQ middle and high school students in the country, 85% of LGBTQ students were verbally harassed at school in the past year and nearly two-thirds heard homophobic remarks frequently or often. LGBTQ students who experienced discrimination, bullying, and harassment at school were more than three times as likely to have missed school in the past month as those who did not, had lower GPAs than their peers, and had lower self-esteem and higher levels of depression.
This is unacceptable.
Today, Teen Vogue supports GLSEN’s National Day of Silence by asking students who have been marginalized for their gender and/or sexuality to share what allies need to know in order to eliminate the anti-LGBTQ language and bullying that exists in classrooms around the world.
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