Day of Silence/Truth

I know I've been writing a lot about gay and lesbian issues lately, but it seems a pertinent issue. Moreover, I feel like the country is at a tipping point. This means I don't think we've necessarily won equal rights for all yet, but that the future hangs in the balance--things can go either way.

But, there are signs things are moving in the right direction. Exodus International, an ex-gay therapy group, has finally stopped supporting the "day of truth" to counter the "day of silence". For those of you who don't know, the "day of silence" is an annual day of no talking to silently support gay and lesbian youth, sponsored by many small high school groups across the country. For years, Exodus has supported a counter protest, where kids wore shirts that read things like, "Be Ashamed. Our school supports what God has condemned" and the like.

It only took the suicides of five gay youth for Exodus to release the following statement:

All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to live out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbors as they'd like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not

While it's sad that it literally took five kids to die before the "WWJD" mantra became an ACTUAL question and answer, I'm glad to see Exodus has finally moved past telling people to be ashamed of themselves.