Marianapolis students observe Day of Silence

On April 21, members of the Marianapolis community chose to observe the annual Day of Silence in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

The students participating took a vow of silence to represent the silencing many LGBTQ+ students face. At the end of the day, the participants met in the Dining Hall to break their silence and discuss their experience.

This year has been the first year that the Day of Silence has been a more formal event, but students have been running it as an informal event for the past two years.

Junior Lily Mueller has been helping run the event since it was turned into an organized effort her freshman year.

“When I was a freshman, a bunch of the upperclassmen were talking about wanting to make this into an event, so I kind of took over it that year,” Mueller said.

She explained that she takes part in the day to raise awareness of the issues facing the LGBTQ+ community and hopes to see participation grow in further years.

Others echoed her sentiment, stating reasons of bringing awareness, showing support even if they weren’t part of the community, and emphasizing the impact of those being silenced. Some mentioned they wanted to show that there were students at Marianapolis that are part of the LGBTQ+ community.

“I participated to show that there’s a lot more numbers than people might think,” junior Sophie Maloney said. She also spoke about participating to show that the issue of being silenced is a common problem for the community.

Dr. Joseph Parodi-Brown, who also works with SHIELD, became involved in the event this year, and he hopes this helps to spread awareness and gets more people involved in coming years. He also would like to see this possibly become a springboard for similar events.