Break the Silence! Community Vigil in Memory of Lawrence King and other LGBTQ Youth Victims of Violence
Christopher Street Park (Manhattan)
Friday April 25
6pm-8pm
I am thrilled and honored that I have been invited to be one of the speakers at the NYC break the silence rally/memorial for Lawrence King this Friday. I was forced to leave home at 17 because I am queer, and now as an adult and the editor of the Kicked Out anthology I believe that one of the most important things to remember about Lawrence’s tragic death was that like so many of the youngest members of our community he had been forced to leave home and that as a part of him not dying in vain will be for on a community level to reform the ways in which we think about homeless LGBTQ youth.
The National Day of Silence brings attention to anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment in schools. This year’s event will be held in memory of Lawrence King, a California 8th-grader who was shot and killed Feb. 12 by a classmate because of his sexual orientation and gender expression. Hundreds of thousands of students will come together on April 25 to encourage schools and classmates to address the problem of anti-LGBT behavior.
The NYC event at Christopher Street Park is being organized and supported by Safe Horizon, the New York City Anti-Violence Project, GLSEN, the New York Civil Liberties Union, SCO Family of Services, the Ali Forney Center, Hispanic AIDS Forum, the LGBT Community Center, the Hetrick-Martin Institute and others.