What is Purple Friday
On Friday, 9 December the Netherlands celebrates “Paarse Vrijdag”, or Purple Friday. On this day, schools and educational institutions across the Netherlands will pay extra attention to the acceptance of LGBTI+ students and employees.
Studying at university should be the time where you explore your own sexuality and gender. This can be great and liberating, but it requires a safe environment. Fortunately, most universities and colleges in the Netherlands are known as liberal and open communities. Yet not every member of our academic communities feels free to be themselves. At University College Roosevelt, we attach great importance to promoting safety for students and staff.
That’s also why we are proudly going purple on Purple Friday. UCR is committed to being an open and safe university college, where everyone can just be themselves, free of fear of rejection or prejudice based on who they are or who they love. We are strongly endorsing the Purple Manifesto (see below).
We will:
- Emphasize social safety for LGBTI+ students and employees
- Expand the dialogue
- Be visible
- Organize support
- Support our LGBTI+ community
Purple Friday is a day that asks for solidarity with the LGBT/Queer community due to the issues LGBT/Queer youth still face in (Dutch) schools. Issues LGBT/Queer youth face include but are not limited to an unwelcome school environment, difficulty coming out and bullying. We encourage students, staff and faculty to wear purple or rainbow colours to show support to the LGBT+/Queer community on this day.