Anti-Gay Focus On The Family Announces It Will Continue Tradition Of Opposing Annual Day Of Silence With Annual Day Of Dialogue

CNN reported Thursday that the anti-gay Christian fundamentalist Colorado-based Focus on the Family will now sponsor an annual event known as The Day of Truth, that challenges the annual Day of Silence, held ever April to underline threats against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Focus on the Family takes over as sponsor from Exodus International, the deeply disingenuous organisation that contends gay can be cured through reparative therapy. Focus on the Family said it will change the name of the counter to the Day of Dialogue, Candi Cushman, a Focus on the Family spokesperson said “We’re trying to raise awareness that more than one side needs to be heard on the issue of homosexuality, and we’re helping to ensure Christian students have the chance to express their viewpoint. What is freedom of speech, after all, but a guarantee of the right to have dialogue. Silence is a media op, but dialogue is a learning op. That’s why we’re so proud of the more than 14,000 students who have taken advantage of this opportunity to learn and share.” The Day of Silence began in 1996, when Exodus International announced last month it no longer intended to mount the counter-protest Day of Truth, begun in 2005, Alan Chambers, the president, said “All the recent attention to bullying helped us realize that we need to equip kids to love out biblical tolerance and grace while treating their neighbours as they’d like to be treated, whether they agree with them or not.” Focus on the Family, which earlier this year announced wide-spread layoffs amid lowering economic gains, says on its website that “Any form of bullying and harassment of others is always wrong, including making fun of others, speaking down to them and saying things that hurt people. Christian students in particular should be bold in speaking up to oppose that kind of behaviour because it goes completely against the model Christ gave us.”