Paly’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club plans to hold a Day of Silence this Wednesday, as the anti-hate "Not in Our School" week continues.

"So many people are kept in the closet and simply are not able to share who they are," junior GSA club president Monte Emmer said. "We are directly taking this oppression and using it to demonstrate what is wrong with [using] a whole group of silent people."

Those who participate in the Day of Silence do not speak for the entire day to show the struggle many gay or lesbian people have had to go through in hiding their identity.

"We will be silent that day to reflect the silence of LGBTQQ [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning] youth and their allies in the fight for queer rights." Emmer said.

The Day of Silence is also a method of awareness.

"We hope to show people what’s really going on with queer youth–silence," Emmer said. "Things still aren’t easy, even in 2006. We want people to take notice and to be encouraged to learn more and join the movement."

Even though people participate in the Day of Silence annually, Emmer feels that with the recent hate crimes at Paly, this year stands out from the rest.

"This year the Day of Silence falls in the middle of a week promoting identity safety at Paly," Emmer said. "A lot of hate crimes have occurred at Paly in the past year or so, and we [GSA] felt that we really needed to make an accurate response this year, fighting back in full force against the oppressors. Also, in the past few years, the GSA was plagued by faulty leadership and this year things have been smoothed out, and organizing is much easier."

The GSA will be handing out shirts, armbands, and informational cards on Wednesday morning in the quad at 8 a.m. when the Day of Silence is set to officially start.

Overall, the GSA would like people at Paly to take more interest in the tough situations LGBTQQ youth have to go through.

“I want other people to get involved in the cause,” junior GSA member Brigid Hurn-Maloney said. “Other students need to understand what has happened at the school and they need to help stop it. It is obvious that there are people who are not as enlightened as we [GSA] would hope and the DOS [Day of Silence] will hopefully bring people’s attention to it.”