For many high schools and colleges across the country, the Day of Silence, sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), is an annual day of silent protest where students refrain from speaking to represent GLBT students without a voice or representation in their school. On April 13, many students from schools around San Diego County participated peacefully.

The Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), a conservative Christian legal group, responded this year with the Day of Truth, which according to the ADF was initiated to counter the “homosexual agenda” and express an “opposing viewpoint from a Christian perspective.”

At Poway High School a small group of students participated in the Day of Truth on April 14 and distributed information during lunch period. In addition to wearing T-shirts that read “Day of Truth. The Truth Cannot be Silenced,” students distributed flyers that contained anti-gay statements and inaccurate statistics about homosexuality.

Among the students distributing flyers this year was Tyler Chase Harper, who in protest to Poway High School’s observance of the Day of Silence last year wore a homemade T-shirt which read “Be Ashamed. Our school has embraced what God has condemned” across the front and “Homosexuality is shameful. Romans 1:27” across the back. Harper was pulled from class as a result.

Attorneys with the ADF have filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the Poway Unified School District on behalf of Harper, charging that Harper’s constitutional right to free speech was violated. The suit is currently in appeal.

Poway senior Amanda “Lola” Skipper said five to seven students wore Day of Truth T-shirts and handed out fliers entitled, “The Truth About Homosexuality” on April 14. Skipper said that Harper spoke to 30-40 students in a courtyard area during lunch.

She said the statements on the flyers he and others passed out were opinion-based and had no factual evidence to support them.

“It made me very angry that opinion was being passed off as fact and these so-called statistics were not immediately backed up by scientific research or attributed to a particular study,” Skipper said in a written statement.

She said Harper’s comments upset her because her mother is a lesbian, and she has other gay, lesbian and bisexual friends.

“I think that it’s absolutely ridiculous that they would allow this particular document to be handed out,” Skipper’s mother, Renee Olson, told the Gay & Lesbian Times. “Then one of her friends was standing there and was called a dyke. If this does nothing more but dehumanize LGBT students, that’s what it did. It creates the area for it to be OK to abuse them.”

The flyer stated “homosexuality is a choice” and “there is absolutely ZERO scientific research that comes anywhere close to proving homosexuality is linked to genetics.” Another statement read, “The average lifespan of a homosexual male or female WITHOUT AIDS is 33 years shorter than that of a heterosexual.” The flyer also contained numerous statements and data not backed up by scientific proof, including “homosexuality is undeniably linked through various studies to pedophilia.”

Olson said she had spoken to Poway Principal Scott Fisher to ask who approved the flyer for distribution at the school. She said Fisher could not tell her if it was approved or not, so she put a call into the superintendent’s office and is still waiting for a response.

Poway Unified School District spokesperson Sharon Raffer said that the school had not approved the flyer beforehand. She said the school is addressing whether or not the distribution of the flyer violates school policy.

Raffer said the normal procedure for a student to distribute literature on campus would be to present the information through the Associated Student Body (ASB) director. Then, if there were any questions about the content, it would be reviewed by administration before reaching students.

“My understanding is this occurred during lunchtime. It occurred while Chase [Harper] was speaking to whoever wanted to gather around,” Raffer said.

She stressed that the administration had just received the flyer and was determining if any disciplinary action needs to take place.

“We need to look at it to see whether it’s within First Amendment rights,” Raffer said. “Being also that students could choose to read it or not, the feeling is that when students initially asked us about having a Day of Silence … we gauged the conduct and activities through our procedures. In the same way, when this Day of Truth came about we tried to make sure that we wouldn’t do anything different.”

The ADF website lists several reasons why they created the Day of Truth, and denies they are trying to create confrontations.

“We are simply exercising our constitutionally guaranteed right to freely and publicly express our religious viewpoints,” one website statement reads. “We are trying to counter organized efforts to legitimize and promote the homosexual agenda in the public schools. We are participating in the Day of Truth not only to exercise our right to free speech, but also out of our love and compassion for those who are struggling with their sexual identity and to provide them with hope through the love of Jesus Christ.”

ADF announced Monday that 357 schools had taken part in the Day of Truth.

“The excitement and interest in our first Day of Truth exceeded anything we could have imagined. This shows there was clearly a need for a caring Christian response to the Day of Silence,” ADF Senior Counsel Joseph Infranco said in a press release.

ADF did not return a call placed by the Gay & Lesbian Times seeking comment.

Founded in 1996, the Day of Silence has become the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. The first-ever Day of Silence occurred at the University of Virginia in 1996 with 150 students participating. Now the GLSEN-sponsored event draws participation from more than 450,000 students at over 4,000 schools and colleges.

Traci Barker-Ball, a student services coordinator and co-advisor of Poway’s Gay- Straight Alliance, said the Day of Silence went well at the school, with 226 participants and 82 students taking a vow of silence for the day with no negative incidents.

“We’ve been doing this for five years now and this was the quietest day and the smoothest,” she said.

Barker-Ball said she was unsure how she felt about having the Day of Silence and the Day of Truth at the school.

“I have very mixed feelings. I definitely support their right just as I support our right. I don’t like to look at things as black and white; as us versus them,” she said.

Christine Corrao, a teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School, said that although the Day of Silence went well at her school, there still were some negative reactions.

“I think a lot of it comes from they don’t understand,” Corrao said. “They’re 16, so they don’t understand a whole lot [about] the idea of protesting and all that kind of stuff. I almost wonder if it would be better to have a stronger sense of background for them before these days so that they are not getting misinformed.”