Teens across the country will participate in the National Day of Silence on Wednesday to protest discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students in schools.

Local teens taking a vow of silence will have a chance to speak up after school at the third annual Night of Noise event at Harmony Cafe in Appleton.

Night of Noise is a forum for students "to come and decompress the day," said Rebecca Beringer, Harmony Cafe's GLBT services program coordinator. Students are invited to share poetry, play music or just talk about their personal experiences. The public also is invited to listen and show their support for perhaps the most maligned of all minority groups in schools.

"It's important for the community to see young people affected by this issue," Beringer said. "I think people think gay students want special rights. But students who aren't gay are affected by homophobia. Even if you aren't gay, you're afraid of being perceived as gay."

Gay teens are more visible than ever in Fox Valley schools. Gay-Straight Alliance groups have formed at public high schools in Appleton, Neenah, Menasha and Seymour, and Harmony Cafe's GLBT Partnership group offers support to 50 local kids.

"The environment in the Fox Valley certainly is a lot better than in years past" for GLBT teens, "but there's still an internal struggle with teens about coming out and being gay," said Kathy Flores, a board member for Night of Noise co-sponsor Positive Voice, northeastern Wisconsin's largest gay and lesbian organization.

A regular at past Nights of Noise is Amber Jorstad, an 18-year-old senior at Appleton West High School and president of the school's Gay-Straight Alliance group. More than 60 students have taken a vow of silence at West, where students plan to keep the Day of Silence demonstration low-key so as not to antagonize anticipated protesters.

"We're just hoping nobody gets harassed," she said.