We get a really good look at people at their depth as humans — when we watch how they react.

I read the Tribunes Gilbert schools writer Hayley Ringle’s comprehensive story today about how students of Desert Ridge High School were protesting observance of the 12^th annual Day of Silence, which raises awareness of bullying and harassment or name-calling of those who are gay or lesbian. While Day of Silence participants were choosing to not talk all day in school and display cards when spoken to, a counter-movement of students was going to stay home. One student talked of having a pizza party around the swimming pool for those not going to school to protest those whom they say are trying to push their values and morals onto them at school.

Day of Silence is sponsored at the school by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Supporters Clubs. Nationally, the day is a project of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

Opponents were saying the observance injects an issue into school life that doesnt belong there. Some used logic that to have such a day for the homosexuals should then open up a day for straight people, Christians, Mormons or Mexicans. The obvious conclusion is that a plethora of special days would quickly be overwhelming and learning would be quickly suffer.

Some say schools try to do too much, that, by doing many more things than classroom instruction, the quality of education deteriorates. The long list of clubs, extracurricular activities and special groups in any public or private high school is an amazing cross-section of what peoples interests and passions are. There would be still more if teacher sponsors could be found.

I often tell people that I really didnt know what homosexuality was in high school. In our small northeast Iowa high school 45 years ago, we had what we called sissies, but that was about all most of us knew on the subject. In our junior year, we had a bright, progressive male teacher who spent a week, or so, in social studies class telling us about human sexuality, along with aberrations. It was tremendously informative for all of us, sheltered as we were. For some reason, the school board found such teaching unacceptable and problematic, and that gifted teacher didnt return the next year. But some school boards today havent progressed beyond that mindset.

Obviously, there wouldnt be protests in Gilbert if educators and parents and school governing board members, early on, developed age-appropriate curricula and open-minded means of supplementing home-gained sex education. If students began to accept their peers for what they are blond, green-eyed, black/white/Asian/Hispanic, gay or straight bullying, fear and resentment would go down. There really is a lot more progress and acceptance in sexual orientation tolerance in our schools across
America than we realize.

Church positions on homosexuality no doubt play into which students respond which way in the Gilbert school controversy. Some students come from faiths that simply label it a sin for which gays need to repent and seek conversion to wholesome, normal heterosexuality. Others call it a sin but agree that gays are born that way, but they should exist in that middle world where acting on their orientation, such as having a partner or relationship with a same-sex person, would be wrong. Then there are those who see the spectrum of sexual orientations as part of Gods creation, and our goal should be valuing people for what they are and wanting them to manifest authentic love in responsibility ways with others, including striving for stable, enduring, lifelong relationships and ultimately their sexual identity on the spectrum goes unnoted.

A Barna Group survey showed that 80 percent of youth who grew up in evangelical churches, for example, think the church shows excessive contempt for gay people and the church is hypocritical. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) notes that half of all homeless youth living on the streets of major cities are gay. Gay and questioning youth are three times as likely as straight youth to commit suicide.

It goes without saying that schools should engender the range of human values of getting along, citizenship, honesty, self-development and striving for excellence.

Students who boycott school because they dont want to give tacit approval to a Day of Silence cannot face one reality: Younger generations of Americans are figuring it out for themselves that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are part of our families whom we love and whom we want to have the happiness we seek. They are no more freaks than your grandma.

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