By Matt Simonette

Staff writer

Despite ominous storm clouds and a bothersome protestor, the Day of Silence turned into the Night of Noise a bit ahead of schedule April 25.

Area GLBT youths gathered outside the James R. Thompson Center downtown for the annual Night of Noise, a youth-organized rally that closed the Day of Silence, when youths in schools remain quiet for an entire day to protest the silence they often struggle against.

But participants were in a celebratory mood long before the countdown that marked the Night of Noise’s official kickoff. Before anyone even spoke onstage, they formed long conga lines and danced along with Madonna’s “Four Minutes.”

Matt, a student at Lake View High School, eventually took to the stage.

“Today, we join thousands around the nation and take pride in who (we) are,” he said, adding that the people gathered that day were the ones who would “make the future.”

A number of speakers followed and recounted the success of the Day of Silence at their schools.

Ariel, from Evanston Township High School, said that when the Gay Straight Alliance started at her school, “We had only four people. This year, we had like 100 people (participate in the Day of Silence). We sold T-shirts and we gave out bracelets.”

Scott, from Walter Payton High School, said it was the fourth year youths at the school observed the Day of Silence, which was notable because “nothing really happened.”

He remembered one student last year who snidely asked if he was a “fag” on the Day of Silence. This year, Scott said, that same student participated and wore a T-shirt.

Abe from Lane Tech High School said the day was met with some resistance there.

“There’s a lot of hate at my school—a lot of protestors. But I think we made a difference,” he said.

One protestor caused a brief stir at the Night of Noise rally. A woman commandeered an area in front of the stage and began a rather elaborate dance with an umbrella. She eventually stood in front of the stage and began praying as she held up a paperback version of the New Testament. Bill Greaves, of the Chicago Commission on Human Relations’ Advisory Council on LGBT Issues, brought over a police officer to try to get the woman to move, but she would not.

Greaves later said the woman told the officers that she was “feeling threatened” by the crowd.

Some of the youths were eager to confront the protestor, so Shannon Sullivan, executive director of the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance, and other ISSA officials flanked her in order to avoid an incident.

“Now we have to spend our time protecting her and her freedom of speech,” a frustrated Sullivan later said. “She kept saying, ‘God deliver me from this.’ It’s like, deliver yourself from this and go home.”

Richard, a student from Northside College Prep, was one of the few speakers to address the protest.

“Let this woman be,” he said. “She believes what she believes. We believe what we want to believe. God loves us all.”

The Day of Silence is usually followed each year by the so-called “Day of Truth,” an anti-gay event originated by Alliance Defense Fund.

Last week, a federal appeals court ruled that a Naperville student could wear a “Be Happy, Not Gay” T-shirt at his high school on the “Day of Truth.”

The decision, delivered April 23, overturned a lower court’s ruling that sided with his school’s move to ban the shirt. The school argued the shirt’s message is derogatory and could disrupt education.

Attorneys for the student, Alexander Nuxoll, welcomed the ruling and called it a victory for students’ First Amendment rights.

Meanwhile, near Seattle, the Rev. Ken Hutcherson led a protest against the Day of Silence at Mount Si High School in Snoqualmie, where his daughter attends. Hutcherson said gay-rights events should be held before or after classes. Gay rights supporters held a counter-demonstration.