April 18, 2012

Day of silence

On April 20 we keep silent to be heard, what do you do to break the silence?

The main purpose of this day is to get the public’s attention, by raising awareness on the issues of violence, intolerance, harassment, and discrimination and by developing relevant and effective solutions in an effort to eliminate them. The International Day of Silence is directed to the world wide public and aims to capture people’s attention on the spread of hate crimes against LGBT communities, homophobia, bullying, physical and psychological abuse, discrimination and intolerance. Every year, thousands of people take part in the events dedicated to the Day of Silence in an effort to increase participation and activism for the reduction of homophobia in educational institutions. This is an opportunity to show the public that this problem concerns not only the LGBT people, but also us, our family members, relatives, friends and all layers of the society.



Day by day, thousands of people keep silent. They keep silent because they are afraid. They keep silent because they are what they are. Our brothers, our sisters, our parents, our friends and coworkers are among them, homosexuals and heterosexuals keep silent, you keep silent and I also keep silent. This is the silence of the entire lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people about discrimination, violence, harassment, which they permanently face. On this day, their silence will be heard all over the world. Millions of people will keep silent in different parts of the world, regardless of their nationality, religion, sex, age, profession, sexual orientation and other personal qualities. They will keep silent because they believe that harassment and discrimination must end. In countries where LGBT rights are better respected, they will keep silent for the educational institutions on its mission to become safer for everyone, regardless of nationality, sexual orientation or other personal characteristics. Finally, in countries where LGBT rights are not protected, the Day of Silence is dedicated to the elimination of homophobia and prevention of hate crimes. People are taking part in the Day of Silence to elucidate this issue and let LGBT people feel that they are not alone.

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