The “Day of Silence” will commence after the UP Pride March around the campus. The march in the University of the Philippines in Diliman is to protest the discrimination, harassment and abuse – in effect the silencing – faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students and their allies in schools.
The Day of Silence, a project originally started by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) of America, will be adapted and will be held during school hours at UP Diliman. Over a hundred participants will be silent on June 30, 2009, wearing stickers and passing out statements that partly read: “Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a youth movement protesting the harassment, prejudice, and discrimination faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies in schools.
“The Day of Silence,†according to local organizer and UP Student Regent Charisse Bernadine Bañez, “is especially relevant to UP because “in Diliman, students are faced with organizational nightmares of the proposed ‘2009 Code of Student Conduct’ not to mention the dictatorial and fascist tendencies of the Gloria Arroyo Administration with the passage of Con-Ass in the lower-house†Marcel Punongbayan of ProGAY UP Diliman hopes that the event will work towards ending some of the silence and hatred students face.
Present statistics found that more than 4 out of 5 LGBT students report verbal, sexual or physical harassment at school and 29% report missing at least a day of school in the past month out of fear for their personal safety. The Day of Silence is one way students and their allies are making anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and name-calling unacceptable in Philippine schools. About the Day of Silence The Day of Silence, a project of the General Assemble of Gender Advocates (GAGA), University of the Philippines Diliman Student Council –Gender Committee, Office of the Student Regent, STAND UP, GABRIELA UP-Diliman, and ProGAY & LesboND UP Diliman, is a campus wide, student-led event during which hundreds of college students take action to bring awareness to the bullying, name-calling, and harassment of lesbian,
gay, bisexual, and transgender and ally (LGBTA) youth.
For more information contact Local Organizer: Marcel T. Punongbayan. (0906) 345-8626
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