It’s been a busy news week on college campuses across the country. It seems the sudden rise of the marriage-equality debate to the national spotlight has sparked various activisms and reactions across both college and high school campuses, and many of the issues being raised by students aren’t going to go away any time soon.

Students in Lubbock, Texas, were denied the right to a Gay Straight Alliance, a case which this week marked Lambda Legal’s first-ever loss in a Gay Straight Alliance lawsuit. Meanwhile, students at a Catholic college in Boston rallied behind a gay senior who has received an onslaught of threatening, anonymous letters. And in Westminster, Calif., a school trustee named Judy Ahrens refused to comply with state law recognizing the rights of transgender students (see our story in the National News section, page 26).

Earlier this month, a student newspaper editorial endorsing same-sex marriage at the Baptist institution Baylor University caused a stir on campus, and things don’t seem to have settled down since. One of the most notable news stories this week involved a gay Baylor student named Matt Bass who had to drop out of the university’s theological seminary after his financial aid was revoked once administrators learned that he is gay. Bass responded with a rally on campus, attended by the press, the Georgia president of the ACLU, Baylor alumni and nearly 200 people all together. We’re not forcing Baylor to change its Baptist tenet that homosexuality is a sin, participants stated, we just want the university to adopt an anti-discrimination policy. Sounds reasonable – much more so that the university’s “statement of homosexuality” in its policies handbook, which groups “homosexuality” with other banned conduct, including gambling and using weapons.

On other campuses, Boston’s Suffolk University students have objected to the university’s choice of Governor Mitt Romney as commencement speaker. The campus Rainbow Alliance’s Kendra Bucklin told the Associated Press, “We feel it was a very inappropriate choice considering the current political climate and the statements that Governor Romney recently made about the GLBT community.” Another good point.

And on the teen scene, a New York City middle school student was awarded a $30,000 settlement this past week, when administrators at her school expelled her for refusing to change out of a T-shirt that said “Barbie is a lesbian”. A teacher at the city’s Middle School 210, which has no official dress code, denounced the shirt as being “inappropriate.” While the shirt is definitely of the in-your-face variety, the situation presents an opportunity to take stock of where we are when it comes to sensitivity issues. While teachers seem increasingly more prepared to be “tolerant” of their GLBT students, what happens when students are out, proud and having a laugh – then, it’s … “inappropriate”? What exactly is inappropriate about that T-shirt? The word “lesbian” on clothes? No, and so if not that, then is it inappropriate to out Barbie? Clearly, it’s “inappropriate”, even in a cosmopolitan setting like the Big Apple, to have fun with your sexuality.

The reality is that most students undergoing discrimination of any kind at school fall far short of ending up with a $30,000 settlement. Recent studies by Lambda Community Services report that 53 percent of GLBT students hear discriminatory comments made by school staff – that’s staff, not students. When the students are brought into the equation, it’s worse: Lambda reports that GLBT students hear an average of 25.5 anti-gay comments daily. For anyone who’s been an openly gay high schooler navigating the crowded hallways between classes at a large high school, that stat is scary but not surprising.

Clearly, people like GLSEN, and the United States Student Association (USSA), need to keep on doing what they’re doing.

One of the things they’re doing happens this month, with the National Day of Silence, which will connect GLBT and straight students across the country, on April 21.

First begun on the campus of the University of Virginia in 1996, the day now involves thousands of university, high school and even elementary students across the country, taking a day or moment to reflect on making schools safer for all students. The day includes rallies and educational events across the country. To get involved, check out the National Day of Silence website which can be found at this article on www.gaylesbiantimes.com.

Go on, make some noise.