Coalition urging boycott of ‘Day of Silence’

AFA Journal Staff, 2008

  A nationwide coalition of Christian and pro-family groups is calling for parents to keep children out of schools that are participating in the 12th annual, pro-homosexual National Day of Silence (DOS) Friday, April 25, 2008.
  The event is promoted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a homosexual activist group that targets schools. Students and even some teachers remain silent throughout the school day, disrupting the learning environment. Protesters wear T-shirts and hand out “speaking cards” protesting alleged injustice, harassment, prejudice and discrimination against homosexuals.
  DOS is typically organized by a school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and is designed to pressure students to regard homosexual, bisexual and transgender behavior as normal and healthy.
  AFA executive assistant Buddy Smith said, “It’s outrageous that our neighborhood schools would allow homosexual activism to intrude into the classroom. Day of Silence is about coercing students to repudiate traditional morality.”
  That’s why a coalition of pro-family groups has recommended that parents become proactive. “If your children will be exposed to this DOS propaganda in their school, then keep them home for the day,” Smith said.
  The coalition is recommending that parents do the following:
     1. Call your local school and ascertain whether they observe the Day of Silence. For a list of schools expected to participate, check the Mission America Web site (www.missionamerica.com).
     2. Be sure to discover on what date the event is planned for your school. The national date is April 25, but some schools observe it on a different date.
     3. Inform the school of your intention to keep your children home on that date and explain why. (A sample letter is also posted at the Web site.)
     4. Explain to your children why you’re taking a stand: Homosexual behavior is not an innate identity; it is sinful and unnatural. No school should advance a physically, emotionally and spiritually destructive sexual lifestyle to students.
     5. Pray with your children for sexual purity and for wisdom to lovingly counsel sexually confused teenagers in your own community.
  The coalition includes Abiding Truth Ministries, American Family Association, AFA of Michigan, AFA of Pennsylvania, Americans for Truth, Concerned Women for America, Exodus Mandate, Illinois Family Institute, Indiana Voice for the Family, Liberty Counsel, Mass Resistance, Mission America, Parents’ Rights Coalition, Stephen Bennett Ministries and Watchmen on the Walls.
For more information on this project, please visit www.afa.net.