NEW YORK (AP) – Irked by the success of the nationwide Day of Silence, which seeks to combat anti-gay discrimination in schools, conservative activists launched a counter-event called the Day of Truth aimed at mobilizing students who believe homosexuality is sinful.

Participating students were offered T-shirts with the slogan “The Truth Cannot Be Silenced” and cards to pass out to classmates on the Day of Silence, which took place April 13, declaring their unwillingness to condone “detrimental personal and social behavior.”

The driving force behind the Day of Truth is the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal group that has opposed same-sex marriage and challenged restrictions on religious expression in public schools. The event is endorsed by several influential conservative organizations, including the Christian ministry Focus on the Family and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Mike Johnson, an Alliance Defense Fund attorney from Shreveport, La., said organizers were unsure how many students participated in the Day of Truth, but he hoped it would grow in coming years as more people learned about it.

Johnson said the event is meant to be “peaceful and respectful,” but he made clear it is motivated by belief that homosexuality is wrong. “You can call it sinful or destructive, ultimately it’s both,” he said.

The event is designed as a riposte to the Day of Silence, which began on a small scale in 1996 and is observed by tens of thousands of students annually at hundreds of schools and colleges across the country.

Most Day of Silence participants go through the school day without speaking, a tactic for drawing attention to the isolation and harassment experienced by many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

Since 2001, Day of Silence observances have been coordinated by the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a New York-based organization that also has worked to support gay-straight alliances at high schools across the country.

Kevin Jennings, GLSEN’s executive director, said he doubted the Day of Truth would gain a following and stature of any significance.

“The Day of Silence was an event conceived of by students themselves in response to a very real problem of bullying and harassment they saw on their campuses,” Jennings said. “The Day of Truth is a publicity stunt cooked up by a conservative organization with a political agenda; it’s an effort by adults to manipulate some kids.”

Underlying the dueling events is a fundamental disagreement over the Day of Silence. GLSEN and its allies say the silent protest is specifically targeting harassment of GLBT students, while the Alliance Defense Fund and other conservatives say GLSEN’s agenda is to broaden acceptance of homosexuality.

“No one is for bullying and harassment,” Johnson said. “But that’s cloaking their real message, that homosexuality is good for society.”