Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The American Family Association is once again showing a commitment to education by urging parents to hold their children out of school on April 25th, the Day of Silence. The Day of Silence is a day set aside every year when students engage in a silent protest of anti-gay bigotry by, surprise, remaining silent for the day. When they are spoken to they will hand the person speaking a card that says:
"Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I am participating in the Day of Silence, a national youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their allies. My deliberate silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discriminaton. I believe that ending the silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you are not hearing today."
Naturally, this angers the family values crowd because, as has become painfully clear by now, the phrase "family values" is a codephrase that means one thing: get the gays. So their solution is to encourage parents to pull their kids out of school that day. Because not only might their kids turn gay if they find out that there are gay people in the world, they might even turn gay if they find out that there are other kids out there who don't hate gay people as much as their pastors do.
By the way, this whole notion the AFA is pushing about schools "participating" in the Day of Silence is nonsense. Schools do not participate, individuals do. Schools cannot stop them from doing so. This is a student-initiated protest. And you have to love the logic in the AFA's "action alert" on the subject:
By remaining silent, the intent of the pro-homosexual students is to disrupt the classes while promoting the homosexual lifestyle.
Right. Not speaking is disrupting (bear in mind that the students can and do speak during class when they are asked a question; the program is specifically designed not to disrupt any class). And war is peace. And hate is love. What nonsense. And while you're at it, take a look at this article about our old friend Ken Hutcherson coming unhinged about the Day of Silence and demanding the end of GSA clubs because they're "sex clubs."
Comments
It's stupid stuff like this that makes me proud to Say that my blog Tangled Up in Blue Guy is an Affiliate Supporter of the Day of Silence.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | March 10, 2008 1:59 PM
This is so....I don't even know the word for it. Ridiculous doesn't even begin to convey my feelings about this. It's not only ridiculous, but it's also insane.
Lemme get this clear--the AFA certainly doesn't want any students saying anything supportive of gay rights, but they also won't tolerate those students being silent for a day, so what they are really saying is this: "Students should not be allowed to speak of gay rights during school hours, but they also must not be allowed to stay silent, either. They must make "normal" chit-chit with other students, before class, in the hallways, at their lockers, etc."
This kind of control-freakery is over the top. They want the students to speak, and speak of only AFA-approved subjects. It's as if they want the "good" kids (ya know, the kids of anti-gay families), not only to never be exposed to the ideas that gays are humans, and thus deserve human rights, but they also don't want these "good" kids to know that anyone disagrees with the AFA's "values". In other words: "If you don't agree with us, fine, but keep it to yourself and chat happily at your lockers so that no one can tell that you disagree."
Seems kinds Stepfordy to me. Gives me the creeps on a level I didn't even know the creeps could exist!
Posted by: hey this isn't my cape! | March 10, 2008 2:03 PM
And my poor wife would trade her grandma's pearls, if there were such, for having those little pachucos in her classes be silent for just a half-hour!
Those AFA folks are nuts.
Posted by: Coragyps | March 10, 2008 2:48 PM
According to the homophobes who couch their bigotry in Christian language about "loving the sinner but hating the sin", yes.
Posted by: Skemono | March 10, 2008 2:59 PM
I thought the AFA was pushing home schooling.
Posted by: SLC | March 10, 2008 3:27 PM
Can't you see a home schooling kid handing his mom the "silence" card.
Posted by: jufulu, FCD | March 10, 2008 3:56 PM
I can't get worked up over this much. Probably because I grew up in a neighborhood where religious "truancy" was a common occurance. My elementary school is in what was (in the 60's) a heavily Jewish subdivision and we didn't even bother to have real class activities on Jewish holidays. We even got an extra recess!
If these folks want to keep their little darlings at home for one day, so they won't be exposed to people supporting "teh gay" whatever. If the rest don't know who the homophobic families are already, they will now; might be handy to know...
The homophobes will run themselves ragged trying to shield their families from all teh eeevil gay all of the time, anyway. It's everywhere!
heh, heh.
Posted by: twincats | March 10, 2008 4:03 PM
What's interesting about the phrase "family values" is that it serves as a code for the speaker's individual cocktail of prejudices. For homophobes, it stands for homophobia; for racists, racism; for male chauvinists, male chauvinism; for religious bigotry, it's religious hegemony. If it's any combination of the above and/or something else, the codephrase fits that as well. And you can almost always figure out the specific blend through context, as the phrase usually precedes a rant about whatever groups the speaker doesn't like.
Posted by: Turcano | March 10, 2008 7:37 PM
@jufulu:
Yes, I could. And for some reason it looks like one of the kids form "Jesus Camp". (:
BTW, what does FCD mean?
Posted by: Skwee | March 10, 2008 10:57 PM
"By remaining silent, the intent of the pro-homosexual students is to disrupt the classes while promoting the homosexual lifestyle."
Even if it was true, doing propaganda by remaining silent looks infinitely better to me than doing propaganda by shouting on top of your voice. Like those fundamentalist preachers always seem to do.
Posted by: Christophe Thill | March 11, 2008 6:17 AM
"Family Values" is the new "States' Rights".
hey this isn't my cape!: It's almost as if the AFA believes anything can give you The Gay.
Posted by: Bouj | March 11, 2008 2:39 PM
Posted by: James Hanley | March 11, 2008 3:22 PM
Also stupid: Pretending you're not Larry Fafarman.
Posted by: argystokes | March 11, 2008 5:02 PM
I love how Larry says I've started censoring his comments again. I've always deleted his comments. I will always delete his comments. As soon as I see them, they're deleted. He knows that. Yet he keeps leaving them as though something is going to change.
Posted by: Ed Brayton | March 11, 2008 5:36 PM
The AFA? I forgot they were still around. Nice to see they're still america-hating idiots. I got in a long email argument with one of them nearly a decade ago when I was around 16. Back then I had more time to waste I guess and a stronger tolerance for banging my head in to a brick wall.
Posted by: Paul Snyder | March 11, 2008 6:35 PM
This is.... disgusting and I'm not even sure if thats the right word I want to use. This Pastor is taking the complete homophobe stance that basically suggests that homosexuals are less than people. If you read the two other articals posted about him through the alleged "sex clubs" *insert sarcasm here* and the Day of Silence along with the supposed harassment of his daughter you might find, as I have, that this man is an extreamly large bigot and that, is disgusting considering that he is a Christian Pastor
Posted by: Hwk | March 15, 2008 1:35 PM