www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/13/dueling.days.ap -> www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/04/13/dueling.days.ap/
NEW YORK (AP) -- Irked by the success of the nationwide Day of Silence, w hich seeks to combat anti-gay bias in schools, conservative activists ar e launching a counter-event this week called the Day of Truth aimed at m obilizing students who believe homosexuality is sinful. Participating students are being offered T-shirts with the slogan "The Tr uth Cannot be Silenced" and cards to pass out to classmates Thursday -- the day following the Day of Silence -- declaring their unwillingness to condone "detrimental personal and social behavior." The driving force behind the Day of Truth is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that has opposed same-sex marriage and challenged restrictions on religious expression in public schools. The event is en dorsed by several influential conservative organizations, including the Christian ministry Focus on the Family and the Southern Baptist Conventi on's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Mike Johnson, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney from Shreveport, Louisian a, said organizers were unsure how many students would participate in th e Day of Truth, but expressed hope it would grow in coming years as more people learned about it. Johnson said the event is meant to be "peaceful and respectful," but made clear it is motivated by belief that homosexuality is wrong. "You can c all it sinful or destructive -- ultimately it's both," he said. The event is designed as a riposte to the Day of Silence, which began on a small scale in 1996 and is now observed by tens of thousands of studen ts annually at hundreds of schools and colleges across the country. Most Day of Silence participants go through the school day without speaki ng -- a tactic for drawing attention to the isolation and harassment exp erienced by many gay students. Since 2001, Day of Silence observances have been coordinated by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a New York-based organiz ation that also has worked to support gay-straight alliances at high sch ools across the country. Kevin Jennings, GLSEN's executive director, said he doubted the Day of Tr uth would gain a following and stature of any significance. "The Day of Silence was an event conceived of by students themselves in r esponse to a very real problem of bullying and harassment they saw on th eir campuses," Jennings said. "The Day of Truth is a publicity stunt coo ked up by a conservative organization with a political agenda; Underlying the dueling events is a fundamental disagreement over the rati onale for the Day of Silence. GLSEN and its allies say the silent protes t is specifically targeting harassment of gay students, while the Allian ce Defense Fund and other conservatives say GLSEN's agenda is to broaden national acceptance of homosexuality. "But that's cloaki ng their real message -- that homosexuality is good for society." Echoing the stance taken by defense fund lawyers in several court cases, Johnson said teachers and students critical of homosexuality have been p ressured to stifle their views while at school. They cite the case of a San Diego-area high school student, Chase Harper, who was disciplined la st year for refusing to change out of a T-shirt that read, "Homosexualit y is Shameful." "We wouldn't have come up with the Day of Truth if Christian kids hadn't been silenced in the first place," Johnson said. "The public school is p art of the free market of ideas -- if the other side is going to advance their point of view, it's only fair for the Christian perspective to pr esent their view, too." The Alliance Defense Fund is anticipating that some students who try to p articipate in the Day of Truth may be admonished by school staff. Its re source kit includes a hot-line number, with attorneys on call to provide legal advice about free-speech rights on school grounds. Jennings said GLSEN had no ambitions to keep schools free of all criticis m of homosexuality. "There always should be a place in our schools for respectful differences of opinion -- we don't expect everyone to agree, or even to like each o ther," he said. But he questioned whether the Alliance Defense Fund and its allies were c ommitted to constructive dialogue. "They feel they have the truth and everybody else should buy into it." According to GLSEN, 84 percent of gay and lesbian high school students ex periences verbal harassment on a regular basis at school, and 40 percent experience physical harassment.
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