On Thursday, April 29, students throughout the Hill community participated in the Day of Silence. The Day of Silence is defined by the Gay, Lesbian, & Straight Education Network  as “a national student-led demonstration where LGBTQ students and allies all around the country—and the world—take a vow of silence to protest the harmful effects of harassment and discrimination of LGBTQ people in schools.”

In taking part in the event, over 50 students chose to remain silent throughout the day, donning specially designed Day of Silence T-shirts that were handed out in the library the day before. Others who chose not to remain silent still found ways to show their support: many faculty members and students could be seen wearing rainbow pins and stickers that were distributed by HASOGI (Hill Advocates for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity). 

“I think it’s really unique in its symbolism. It demonstrates silent voices because when people are going into the closet or having to make explicit their identity and stuff like that, their voices are not being shared, or they aren’t allowed to share themselves fully. It symbolizes the silence of those who can’t speak up or who have committed suicide due to their idenitity,” said Garrison Smith, a HASOGI faculty adviser.

Smith, who is also a Hill School alum from the Class of 2015, mentioned that the Day of Silence has been a running Hill tradition since his time as third former. However, due to a variety of factors that mainly revolved around the unconventional events of this school year, he believes that this year’s Day of Silence did not have the same impact as it usually would.

“We didn’t know that the Dean’s Office was having a full dress down day for the vaccines, so it didn’t have the same effect, because one of the impacts is that people’s silence is juxtaposed with the T-shirts and dress code, which brings attention to the protest in a sense. That part was off, and there’s usually more classes in a day, not the block scheduling, so you’re seeing more people in-between classes and the silence has more of an impact … a lot of factors just changed it and whatnot.”

The Day of Silence was followed by two other events organized by HASOGI. The first was a talk from guest speaker Glenn Witman, a Hill alum and founder of the social activism initiative You Can Play, which works to ensure the safety of LGBTQ+ athletes. Shortly after was Breaking the Silence, an opportunity for students to gather and share their artistic work, based around the theme “Use Your Voice.”

When asked about her hopes for these events, HASOGI co-president Lilian Rizek ’22 said, “I want people to know it’s OK to be who you are, and to realize that some things need to change so people like me feel safe being ourselves in our everyday environments.”