Please understand my reasons for not speaking today. I support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender rights. People who are silent today believe that laws and attitudes should be inclusive of people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. GLSEN'S Day of Silence is to draw attention to those who have been silenced by hatred, oppression, and prejudice. Think about the voices you are not hearing. What can you do to end the silence?

The Alaska Family Council is joining other pro-family groups in urging concerned parents to oppose this blatantly political event by keeping their kids home from school on Friday, April 25th. Click here for more info about the Day of Silence on our web site. School administrators are wrong when they allow the classroom to be disrupted for political purposes. The Day of Silence requires that teachers either create activities around the silence of some or many, or exempt silent students from any activity that involves speaking.

One article posted on our website that we are in agreement with states it this way - "While it is legitimate to teach students that diverse opinions exist on this issue, it is not legitimate to imply that one of those opinions is preferable to another. While it is appropriate to teach acceptance of people, meaning that we should treat all with civility, it is not appropriate to suggest that students need to accept the view that homosexual conduct is moral. These important distinctions are rarely, if ever, made in public school discussions of acceptance."

The Alaska Family Council believes that the Day of Silence is, sadly, a day of deception and political pressure from a very pro-active, advocacy group that has successfully manipulated our public schools. By allowing the event to occur and disrupt the learning experience for the entire student body, school administrators, principals and teachers are simply telling just one side of what is undeniably a very controversial and sensitive issue.

To find a list of participating Alaskan high schools, frequently asked questions, sample letters to send to your teens' school and other important information about the Day of Silence, click on the link below.

For those of you with kids in the Anchorage School District, please let Superintendent Carol Comeau know how disappointed you are in her decision to allow schools and classrooms to be disrupted for an entire day by this event. I have personally spoken with her recently about this issue and she was very civil and polite but firm in her defense of the Day of Silence. We should do the same in our efforts.