This year, Minarets celebrated our first-ever Day of Silence presented by GLSEN. Day of Silence took place on April 12th, 2019, where participating students took a day of complete silence, no speaking, to stand alongside LGBT students in favor of their safety in school.
Minarets’ LSA Club, the LGBTQ+ Support and Activities Club, has presented many events from GLSEN to the school, such as the very successful No Name Calling Week that took place in January of this year. Club President Mika (Jacob) Garaffa has put in lots of hard work to establish awareness and support for his fellow LGBTQ+ classmates at Minarets.
“Day of Silence has a statement for everyone participating. The statement is, “‘Today I am silent for the day of silence. It is a national youth movement highlighting the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ+ people at school.”’ Says President Mika (Jacob) Garaffa, whose birthday fell on this year’s Day of Silence. If you see him around campus, wish him a happy late birthday!
27 students across Minarets participated on April 12th, which is a strong number for our school especially noting the fact that this was our first Day of Silence ever. As the years go on, Minarets hopes to bring many more Day of Silences as well as other events presented by GLSEN to the campus. The recognition and support of LGBTQ+ students is incredibly important, and we should all work together in unity to make the people of our Minarets community and beyond feel welcome.