To the Editor:
During the 1980s, as an activist prodding my governments—local, state, and national—to pay attention to the AIDS epidemic, I became very familiar with the slogan, “Silence = Death.” We wanted to bring attention to the ways silence was, in itself, a policy, and one that had serious repercussions.
The public silence surrounding the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) people contributes to homophobia and oppression. In recent years, the suicides of LGBT youth have made national news. One of the messages in these news stories is the ways silence, sometimes imposed in school policy, gives a pass to bullies and adds to the despair of these young people who have taken drastic measures to escape the hatred they face in their daily lives.
Colorado Mesa University President Tim Foster was quoted in the Criterion as saying: “Whenever you have allegations such as these, you have to allow due process to work.” He continued: “Unfortunately, you see this too frequently, where people overreact.” It is not an overreaction to acknowledge that Chelsea Gallagher was assaulted and that she believes she was assaulted because she is a lesbian.
LGBT people are targets of violence. These crimes often are not reported because of the silence that still exists in our society. Over the years, I have urged a number of people to report the crimes against them, with very limited success. Reporting the crime is a coming out process, a public declaration that many LGBT people are not ready to make. It puts us in the public eye not as simply citizens who happened to be harmed, but as lesbians, gay men, as transgendered people.
Chelsea Gallagher has committed a tremendous act of bravery by reporting this crime and by talking openly about who she is. She is breaking the silence.
We do not have to jump to conclusions without knowing the facts, but we also need to not underreact, because by saying nothing, we are, in fact, maintaining a wall of silence that perpetuates homophobia.

Sincerely,
Sarah Swedberg