So far in 2008, based on crimes that have actually been reported publicly, an LGBT American is murdered in a hate crime...One every 8 days.

The vast majority of the killings in 2008 have been of transgender young people.

In a recent email I received, the American Family Association decried the upcoming Day of Silence being observed on April 25, 2008 in schools--public and private, high schools and universities all across the country. They urged parents to pull their children out of school on those days. The Day of Silence was created to protest the silencing of LGBT youths through discrimination, harassment, bullying, and violence.

The Day of Silence is, was, and has always been a student-created, student-led, student-focussed effort to promote tolerance and the dignity of all humanity.

Nevertheless, the AFA alleges it's part of some great gay conspiracy...asserting it's a day of "promoting the homosexual lifestyle."

Last time I checked, wanting to end violence wasn't specifically an exclusively 'homosexual' thing.

Then again, if the AFA wants to brand the promotion of respect and an end to violence as promotion of my lifestyle...I'm pretty cool with that.

After all, the alternative seems to be...one every 8 days.