Symbolism

So, for the past two years, I have been participating in the Day of Silence. You remain silent for the day in observance for the silencing of gays who want their rights and their allies. This year, I decided to also do Stompfest, a step show for multicultural organizations and sororities.

If you've read a book then you should see what is coming.

They're on the same day.

So, there is the need for noise in the step show. There's a chant (which originally had three people; now that I'm not doing it, only two) and then there's some "boom, I said"s in there. So, I will not be doing any of that. I informed some people on my team that I won't be saying a single thing during our show and I got very mixed reactions.

The girls, after expressing some surprise and curiosity, pretty much accepted it. My roommate, after expressing lament that they happened to fall on the same day, accepted it as well. He knows my commitment to these things, so he wasn't about to try and change my mind.

The last two people had the best reactions though.

One, instead of appealing to me, appealed to one of the girls (one who actually isn't on the team). He tried to say that they would be missing a voice which would negatively affect us. She told him that he and the other chanter would just have to be louder. She also told me that I should just mouth the words, to give an impression that I'm chanting and booming.

The other, after expressing amazement over what I was supporting, tried to convince me that I didn't need to do it. Why do you have to do it? It's only for ten minutes, can't you break it for ten minutes? And then while I was just chilling and checking my facebook, sent me this wall post:

dude... we seriously need your voice for the stompfest. your basically one of the three pillars thats gonna hold the three part step together!!! isnt it kind of late already to say that you HAVE to do the day of silence thingy? you know you always got next year to do this kind of thing

I replied that I knew I was going to be doing this the entire year and that my principles outweighed the step show. He replied:

ay goo...w/e dude. you better tell the coaches so that they can come up with something for this. get ready to get your ass chewed for this dude....

I then told him that if the coaches were that angry they could kick me off, but since we are so close to the show, they couldn't do much more than put up with it.

Now, it's not like I think I'm doing something that is so stupendous that it will completely change everybody's opinions on gay rights. If it changes even one person then that's great. But really, it's more about observing the fact that gays don't have the right to marry. It's giving up something very small, in solidarity for people who have been restricted from having something that is so intrinsic. So, although it is something small, I'm still going to do it all day. Step show or none.


Also, I'm performing with my Day of Silence T-shirt. Double eff you!