A spirit week that is often overshadowed by the end of the year is the one the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) club throws. This year, the spirit week took place during the first week of May.
GSA does this spirit week in honor of the Day of Silence, which is a day where people stay silent to highlight the challenges of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) community. However, in 2025, the Day of Silence has been changed to the Day of (No) Silence, because of the current oppression of the LGBTQ+ community. This change encourages people to speak up instead of silence, which can be more powerful.
Regardless of what the spirit week is for, LGBTQ+ students and allies in our school have an opportunity to show their pride during the spirit week.
“This spirit week is to honor the Day of Silence, or more recently, the Day of (No) Silence,” junior, GSA officer, Cassie Williams said.
The Day of Silence was started in the 90s by two college students, and is a nationally recognized demonstration that includes protests against harassment and discrimination of LGBTQ+ students in schools. While the Day of Silence does not specifically call out an individual day or event for the LGBTQ+ community, the day represents years of protests against discrimination and harassment for the members of this community. This year, The Day of Silence was celebrated on April 11; however, the GSA club prepared a spirit week to celebrate this from May 5 through May 9.
Members of GSA voted on themes they would like to participate in, and the theme that won was flowers.
“We are going to have some days that are based off of specific flowers, and then other days are going to be generic themes based around flowers,” Williams said.
The spirit days included a pajama day called Flower Bed. Another day revolved around friendships, asking for participants to match with a group. Each day was planned to bring pride, color, and light to the discrimination and harassment surrounding the LGBTQ+ community.
The GSA club spent many of their weekly meetings planning and designing posters for the spirit week. For Williams, painting the posters was their favorite part of planning the spirit week.
“Everyone pitched in with ideas for each spirit day, and we came to an agreement on what days to do. Then we spent the next couple of meetings designing the posters and painting them,” Williams said.
Spirit days are a chance for different communities to show off their pride in themselves. For GSA, it is a chance to express themselves and be who they are at our school, while commemorating an important day in their history. Next time there is a spirit week for this club, consider participating and partaking in the pride of the LGBTQ+ community.
