In the political arena, a protest sometimes is regarded as the most potent civic expression citizens are capable of creating.

The word protest draws in the familiar images of placard waving and chant shouting which, in and of itself, is powerful but isn't the most enduring method of changing minds.

What the members of the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community did on Wednesday - crossing their mouths out with tape and quietly making their presence known on campus - wasn't a protest. Instead, they utilized another form of articulation - demonstration.

Like the galvanizing sit-ins staged throughout the south in the '60s by civil rights advocates, the LBGT community peaceably made people aware of the many voices that are silenced by a society that casually suppresses their existence.

Beginning at 7:30 a.m., students from about 700 schools agreed to spend the entire day without saying a word. It may not seem like such a sacrifice, but if you've ever attempted something similar, it's trying to get through a day without your primary source of communication. Being able to speak is something taken for granted. Not speaking is a test that holds a similar challenge and significance of a fast.

At 7:30 p.m., after 12 hours, the Day of Silence was complete. Demonstrators removed their tape to reflect on the experience. As they might have expected, some faced the jeers of derogatory terms.

But those incidents don't necessarily stifle their cause. Martin Luther King Jr.'s followers endured countless racial slurs while they sat in local businesses owned by whites, and it ultimately led to the beginnings of their success.

If anything, the ignorant statements hurled on Wednesday help to make a point that, when faced with people who are making a peaceful and unintrusive statement, some are still compelled to react negatively. It lets everyone see the poison of harassment, prejudice and discrimination that ails this state and the nation.

The Day of Silence demonstration was birthed in 1996 by college students at the University of Virginia. Such an effective joint statement has the power to make real change.

With its growth to many other colleges and high schools, we hope the demonstration will catalyze tolerance. What participants are asking of people isn't hard. It's simply a request to see someone society has made invisible and treat them with respect.

With so many someones out there silently voicing a desire to be heard, they must have been seen on Wednesday.

Echoing Spectrum secretary Rachel Geoghan's sentiment, "We need to end discrimination here before we can expect to end it at a national, or even a state level." Meaningful change begins with people's perceptions and moves to legislation.

No ballot proposal, or attempt to strip health care rights, is going to make people cease to be lesbian, bisexual, gay or transgender. They are a part of society that society must learn to treat as a part of itself.