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The Dartmouth
July 14, 2025 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Students vow silence to support queer visibility

Fifty-four Dartmouth students, staff and faculty members took a vow of silence from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. yesterday as part of the national Day of Silence, sponsored on campus by the Dartmouth Rainbow Alliance.

Jennifer Dziura '00, who organized the event, said it was intended to emphasize the silencing effect that homophobia places on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) people.

Each participant wore a sticker reading "Day of Silence" and gave out business-size cards explaining the event rather than speaking aloud.

Dartmouth was one of more than 70 schools nationwide taking part in the event. An estimated 7,000 people of all sexual orientations participated throughout the country, according to a press release from the event's national coordinators in Charlottesville, Va.

Dziura said a majority of those who took the vow of silence are not members of the DRA and that she was receiving electronic-mail messages as late as yesterday morning from people who wanted to participate.

Leah Fergenson '98, Emily Gorman '98, Andrea Korber '98, Lia Monahon '98 and Kytja Weir '98, who all took the vow of silence, ate lunch at Collis Cafe with Patrick Cote '98 and Daniel Weinberg '98, who were not participating.

The five women gave out the cards to anyone who spoke to them, eliciting responses from people in the area.

Although the participants could not speak at the time, Weinberg said, "It's impressive to see people taking part in an alternative way of educating others about a problem."

Dziura said she thought the event was a success. "I think a lot of people were reached, especially through BlitzMail. Most participants set an automatic reply explaining their inability to communicate, which made the number of those reached even greater," she said.

DRA co-Chair Ezekiel Webber '00 said he thought the Day of Silence was well-received.

"Most people said it was neat and that they would blitz me to find out more information and to talk about it. I didn't get any negative reactions."

Peter Jacobsen '00 said, "The person I affected most was myself. I felt angry, sad and lonely trying to remain silent."

"It's scary to think that this is how people really had to feel," Robin Flechtner '99 said. "They didn't have anyone to talk to."

"It brought me back to what I felt like before I came out. It's very hard to remain silent," Webber added.

The Day of Silence was first held at the University of Virginia in April 1996. The event's success inspired UVA's Day of Silence coordinators to create a national event. It is the first nationwide event organized by the LGBT youth movement, according to the press release.

Yesterday's event was part of Visibility Month, or "Gaypril", which will also involve social events for LGBT students, outreach events for those who believe they might be LGBT and educational events to teach the rest of the Dartmouth community about LGBT rights, Dziura said.

Also as part of Visibility Month, DRA members have been handing out rainbow stickers at the Hopkins Center in support of LGBT rights.

But some members said they received some negative reactions to their rainbow sticker campaign.

Flechtner said many people looked at her like she was "crazy" when she asked them to take a sticker to support LGBT rights. She said her answer for those people was, "It's just a sticker. It's not gonna bite you. It's not contagious."