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GSA takes a stand in silence
Rodrigo Carbonel / Roundup
Hands firmly tied with a wire and beaten, two teenagers died in a crime of hate years ago and their story is still remembered.
Nireah Johnson, 17, and Brandie Coleman, 18, were put into the back of a car by their assailants who drove them to a deserted wooden area in Fall Creek Corridor Park in Indianapolis, Ind., only to shoot them on the forehead and abandon them inside the vehicle on the night of June 23, 2003.
Their assailants came back that same night to pour a can of gasoline on the back seat and set the car on fire after discovering that Coleman’s friend, Johnson, was a transgendered woman.
In memory of people killed in hate crimes due to their sexuality, the Pierce College Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) wore black lipstick, and taped their mouths shut as they hosted a Day of Silence Thursday on the campus Mall.
“We do this for people to be educated, for them to be aware that this kind of crime happens,” said GSA Secretary Daniel Maldonado. “The more we educate people and get the word out, the more people we can help.”
Sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), the National Day of Silence happens every year on April 15, which is a day in which students across the country take some form of a vow of silence to call attention to the silencing effect of anti-LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools.
It was created in 1996, when students at the University of Virginia organized the first Day of Silence in response to a class assignment on non-violent protests. Over 150 students participated in the event, so the following year organizers took the protest nation-wide and nearly 100 colleges and universities participated.
The first Day of Silence Pierce hosted was in 2009.
In a Harris Interactive study on bullying, students said two of the top three reasons students are harassed in school are actual or perceived sexual orientation and gender expression.
