Another GLSEN Day of Silence has come and gone. I went to work on Friday morning at the University Counseling Center. I had warned my supervisor that I was not going to talk that day. Fortunately, I wasn't seeing clients!

I was especially moved to participate this year following Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover's suicide. You can read more about his tragic death on the Advocate web site - there is an interview with his mother. Carl would have turned 12 on Friday, April 17! But, he had been subjected to ridicule and harassment from fellow students at his middle school since the beginning of the year. School administrators turned a deaf ear - and chose not to intervene on Carl's behalf.

I am angry! While I believe in self-determinism, and the right to commit suicide, Carl's death was preventable. No one should be tormented in the ways that Carl was - to the point where he turned the hatred on himself and took his own life.

Please stand up for those who are silenced. We supposdely live in a free country - but it hardly seems free when people are allowed to harass others. This must stop!