Hartford is a city in Washington and Dodge counties in SE Wisconsin, population just more than 14,000. Earlier this week on Facebook:

Actually, TODAY is the National Day of Silence.

As part of a class assignment on non-violent protests, the University of Virginia students organized the first Day of Silence in 1996. Since then, the National Day of Silence has been observed each year in April. Note the students I’m assuming could have chosen all kinds of issues to ‘protest’ but went with this one.

Today’s read is from Buck Angel, an adult-film producer, performer (2007 AVN Transsexual Performer of the Year) and motivational speaker, a female who lives as a man.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

When I see that a program like the Day of Silence is being promoted in schools, my first thought is, “Wow! Awesome idea!” I think of how it can bring awareness to all kids that LGBTQ people exist.

But…

Read it all here.

MORE from the National Review:

Multiple parents whose children attend Felix Festa Achievement Middle School in the Clarkstown Central School District in West Nyack, N.Y., submitted incident reports detailing the event through FAIR’s anonymous reporting portal. They told FAIR (the Foundation against Intolerance and Racism) that students report feeling compelled to sign the card to avoid retaliation or being labeled a bigot.

“Children who are not LGBTQ feel compelled to remain silent because they fear being bullied by their peers. The participants of the Student Gay Alliance go around with a sign-up board asking their straight peers to sign and agree to being silent on that specific day,” one parent wrote in a testimony. “Children often sign because of fear, or looking bad, or being called homophobic. Many children stay home from school that day, so they aren’t frowned upon for participating in the classroom.”

Another parent said the event will disrupt students’ learning, which has already been severely stifled by two years of school closures because of Covid.

“My kid doesn’t go to school to be an activist, he goes to be a student,” Charlotte W., a parent of a sixth-grader at Felix Festa, told FAIR. “Many kids don’t want to remain silent for a full day at school because it makes it extremely challenging to complete their school work — asking questions, offering answers in class — how do you do that if you’re not allowed to speak? So when those kids don’t participate in the Day of Silence, they’re asked, ‘are you a bigot?’ Well-meaning or not, this kind of activism is having the opposite effect — pitting kids against each other.”

On March 27, Leigh Ann O’Neill, Managing Director of Legal Advocacy FAIR sent a letter to the school’s principals that seemed to leave open the possibility of legal action.

The letter notes that, while the school is requiring students to participate in the event, students who abstain could be harassed or bullied, effectively coercing them to join in.

“Requiring students to remain silent as a form of political activism violates the free speech guarantee of the First Amendment. That guarantee denies states and their agencies (including public schools) the power to require adherence to any particular set of ideological beliefs,” O’Neill wrote. “Many religions reject the claims and basic tenants ascribed by the LGBT movement. Compelling students to affirm ideas contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs, with no ability to opt out, violates their religious rights as guaranteed by the First Amendment.”