Silence against abuse...

The Silver Lining Foundation hosted its Day of Silence event in the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus on Friday 20th April, 2012.  The silent protest was geared towards raising awareness about the abuse, harassment and discrimination of members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in schools.

Despite critiques of poor advertising before the event, some of which I agree with, the days proceedings were undoubtedly a success.  If it did at least one thing, it was raise awareness about the LGBT presence on campus.  No longer is it a mythical group that people whisper about but it is now a tangible part of society, made up of your friends and family members; the people who you love and who love you.  More importantly however was that it was able to highlight that there is soon to be change in how people deal with issues such as this.  Given that many participants would not consider themselves part of the LGBT community, the support against bullying and discrimination was clearly evident.  This group of brave young men and women have taken it upon themselves to be a voice for those who are currently oppressed, challenging the social ideologies that exist in Trinidad and for far too long have gone without being questioned and challenged.  

The question now arises as to why this is even important.  For me, it is the mere public movement that makes it so.  It seems to be part of a growing local trend of utilising space disruption tactics to send messages.  This "alternative" form of message sending has proven very successful in the past as the audience can generally not avoid receiving the message.  How they receive the message is another story...  As a participant, I experienced many different reactions to the event.  People had to read small cards to get information and given the inquisitive nature Trinidadians, people came.  There was general support from the audience, with words of motivation, commendation and encouragement being offered to the participants.  The number of signatures on the banner after the even is a reflection of all the support received.

Those who were against it however, seemed to be lacking logical explanations for their feelings.  The comments, facial expressions and gestures received all came without any kind of reasoning.  I was actually looking forward to someone publicly challenging the event rather than making a comment  while they briskly walked away.  Yet again, I fail to comprehend the intelligence of some human beings.  Maybe I'm just different because I challenge what I see as wrong, as the other participants of this event, or maybe it is that those who don't are content with not having to think about anything that they believe.  There were numerous negative comments made but there seemed a lack of strength or courage to defend it, perhaps because these people don't know how to...

I put any sort of discrimination, abuse, oppression and repression under how I look at racism, which seems the simplest way to do it.  Why categorise and judge people based on characteristics that they can not control.  Should people be judged by what they are as opposed to who they are?  Categorisation causes too many problem in my opinion; it's too much to try to remember anyway.  Sometimes people are better left in ignorance... people should be ignorant of categorisation...

So with this step forward I wish the Silver Lining Foundation all the best with their future endeavours.  For those who never had a chance, here is an avenue to get support.  The road will only get rougher but perhaps there will be more positives than anyone can imagine...  Silence as the starting point to break the silence... far too many things are wrongs are aided by silence... As Rian asked at the end of the event, "When will you break the silence?"

The Silver Lining Foundation can be contacted through the following:
Email: thesilverliningfoundation@gmail.com
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