This article was originally published in The Scribe, UCCS’s student newspaper, on April 20, 2015.
By Eleanor Skelton
News Editor
The national Day of Silence in the LGBT community was April 17, but some students don’t have Friday classes. Therefore, Spectrum hosted a “Big Noisy Barbecue” on April 16 from 1-4 p.m. instead to engage the campus community.
The barbeque was scheduled in the University Center upper plaza, with a bounce house, photo booth and live music from UCCS Radio. But due to wintry conditions, the MOSAIC office hosted the event indoors.
“Day of Silence started in 1996 as a way to combat or put more of a visible face on anti-LGBT bullying,” MOSAIC office LGBT Program Director Vanessa Delgado said. “It’s a silent protest supposed to emulate or mirror the voices that are silenced every day.”
Delgado explained that students typically wear duct tape over their mouths and refuse to speak throughout the day and pass out flyers explaining the protest. Every few years, the day is dedicated to a specific person.
Spectrum club president and junior organizational communication major Alison Egbers explained the barbeque is “to celebrate voices that are heard now” and encourage others to speak out.
“Consider what our political social place in the world was 20 years ago, and so there’s been a lot of advancement, to move the community and the movement forward,” Delgado said.
“Today, Spectrum’s idea was this notion of getting away from silence, because we don’t want to perpetuate or promote silence, we want to perpetuate or promote noise and vocal activism,” she said. “I think that there’s definitely a place for speaking about anti-LGBT bullying.”
Despite the weather, students still expressed appreciation for the event and raising awareness.
“Just coming to this school and seeing that there’s a club like this, in general, for people that are LGBT, that’s really cool to have that,” freshman math major Austin Brownell said.
The event drew students from area colleges as well.
“I actually grew up in a fairly unbiased family, I’m a practicing Catholic, they were very accepting, but at the same time, I also know people whose parents are not,” junior zoology student Natasha Meehan said. She said she is transferring this fall to UCCS from PPCC.
“It’s really awesome to have days like this where everyone can come together and remember and help each other,” she said.
“One of the things that we forget is that this happens still today, where we live,” Delgado said. “Anti-LGBT sentiments are everywhere, homophobia is definitely still a problem. Day of Silence is a good reminder that we should be aware of those things.”
Eleanor Skelton 