Announcing the Rational Day of Dialogue

The Day of Silence has been one of the most successful grassroots protests for gay equality in the past decade – so it’s no surprise that it’s also succeeded in drawing the ire of conservative Christians. Yes, apparently something so simple as students being silent to stand in solidarity with their gay classmates requires a response from the religious right. They’ve tried pulling their kids out of school on the Day of Silence, or at least claimed they were going to. They’ve tried setting up a so-called “Day of Truth” for their kids to tell people that being gay is a sin – which they decided to cancel because dozens of gay kids were killing themselves. You’d think that after this, they might give it up and stop trying to refute an anti-bullying campaign. But, like a bad case of ignorance, it just keeps coming back.

This year, Focus on the Family has rebranded it as the “Day of Dialogue”. A dialogue about what, you might ask? Well, it’s about “supporting those who want to express their faith-based viewpoints about homosexuality”. Because when people are standing up against anti-gay bullying, we can’t let that pass without an opposing viewpoint!

But if a dialogue is what they’re after, maybe that’s just what we need. When religion is being used to tell gay students that who they are is wrong, we should have a dialogue about that. If they’re going to talk about “what the Bible really says”, let’s talk about what the Bible really is. If they want to talk about how God made us, let’s talk about how we made God. If they want to have a Day of Dialogue, I say we make it a Rational Day of Dialogue. Because if they’re going to tell us that who we are is sinful, and expect us to take it on faith, that deserves a real answer.

Anti-gay proselytizing isn’t something that should go unchallenged in schools. Students should know the truth behind these religious claims: they’re not as unquestionable as they might seem. On April 18th, let’s have a real dialogue – a rational dialogue.

Find out more at Rational Day of Dialogue.

Announcing the Rational Day of Dialogue
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