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.
I agree with this issue.With all of the uneeded things students are forced to learn about in the american public school system this is something that they really need to know.For once there should be a Rational Day of Dialogue for students to learn about how it’s not wrong to be diffrent and be against anti gay bullying and not believe in an imaginary make believe god.If these Jesus Freaks are allowed to come into these school and push their propganda (all in an attempt to increase their church attendance and an increase in the donation box) then it should also be allowed for there to be a Rational Day of Dialogue for students as well.
After reviewing the Rational Day of Dialogue my hat goes off to the creators of this website.It looks like a lot of work went into putting it together.I hope it didn’t cost to much to make this page,nowhere on this page does it ask for a donation of any kind,I’m sure that any other religious website would have the Donate button at the top front of their page.
I find this entry awfully amusing coming from you! It was you who made me feel like less than dirt, it was you that degraded and mocked transsexual people who had done nothing to you. It was you who permitted and took part in making light of rape. Do you think your maturity at the time means anything to those you hurt, rmuser? You are no different from those you speak against. Can you even grasp that you are a hypocrite of the highest caliber?
Or have you been pretending you never did any of that? I would love to hear a response on this matter from you!
Hey Zannia,
I bumped into you (and subscribed) on YouTube. I’m glad I stopped by here as well. Very cool idea on Rational Dialogue. I feel I’ll be too distracted on that day to do anything meaningful, but I appreciate the sentiment. Maybe there should also be a Day of the Religious Explain Their Made-up Bullshit.
Please feel free to drop by my site. Let’s link up!
Best,
Anton.
Zinnia,
Sorry for the misspell!
Best,
Anton.
You should make a video post about books, and a written entry in this blog as well about the same topic. I´ve read The demon-haunted world, and found it amazing.