The Day of Silence is dedicated to the issues of discrimination, emotional harassment, and violence against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) people. This is an annual action of nonviolent protest that started in the US in 1996, and in 2007 was extended to Poland and Slovenia. This year, the International Day of Silence will take place on April 25 in the US and Europe. On May 3, the Day of Silence will take place in Russia for the first time, and will be dedicated to the problems of discrimination and intolerance towards LGBT, as well as ethnic, religious, and other minorities.
These issues are no less relevant to modern Russia than they are to the Western nations. In recent years, the number of hate crimes based on ethnicity or religion has been growing. Periodically, isolated reports of hate crimes against LGBT people appear in mass media, whereas in reality these crimes are tens if not hundreds of times more numerous. Harassment and bullying at educational institutions of children that are “different” is a fact shrouded in shamed silence yet ever-present.
The Day of Silence in Russia is an action targeted at the general population and intended to draw people’s attention to the problems of silencing hate crimes, discrimination, and intolerance. It is an opportunity to demonstrate that these problems concern not “other” people somewhere else, but us directly - our families, our loved ones, our friends.
The Day of Silence will take place in St. Petersburg on Sunday, May 3, 2008, from 12 to 2 pm on Malaya Konyushennaya Street. It will take form of a rally under the title “Day of Silence” and the motto: SOMETIMES TO BE HEARD YOU HAVE TO BE SILENT.
The action participants, their mouths taped shut, will give out flyers and other informational materials to the passersby, without commentary.
Support the Day of Silence by taking a daylong vow of silence to represent the silence faced by minorities. All depends on your skills and creativity to plan and organize, but absolutely, THE SILENCE SPEAKS VOLUMES.