April 8, 2003
Contact: Erica Horton (509-963-1994/e-mail: cwugala@hotmail.com)
ELLENSBURG, Wash. - As a way to promote awareness of
inequality suffered by members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) community, some Central Washington University
students have taken a nine-hour vow of silence this Wednesday (April
9). GALA-GLBTSA, the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight
alliance organization at CWU, will host the “Day of Silence Project”
from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Ellensburg campus.
It’s a day in which people of all sexual orientations and
gender identities who support LGBT rights take a vow of silence to
recognize and protest the silence that LGBT people face each day,
according to Erica Horton, GALA-GLBTSA political coordinator.
Throughout the day students will pass out cards to their
teachers and fellow students declaring their advocacy for LGBT issues.
The focus of this year’s event is inequality in housing.
The goal is to have the university’s office of housing
services acknowledge the need for LGBT-friendly housing by implementing
a ‘queer friendly’ check portion into their housing application,
according to Horton.
“Providing gay and lesbian students with the option of having
a ‘queer friendly’ roommate means that they will feel more comfortable
living in the dorms," she says. "I think that it is a very simple
request that will do nothing but good things for the university and its
students.”
In addition, daily though Wednesday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
GALA-GLBTSA will provide a booth in the Samuelson Union Building (SUB)
for students to pick up advocacy cards and learn more about the Day of
Silence Project.
For more information about the project, or for persons of
disability to arrange for reasonable accommodations, call (509)
963-1994, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.
