Each year, on the second Friday of December, Purple Friday is being celebrated. The name of this special day comes from wearing purple to show solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, mostly at educational institutions. As UT, we want to amplify this message: it is of utmost importance that LGBTQ+ students feel welcome and appreciated in their educational institutions! With Purple Friday taking place, we offer some concrete things you too can do.
What can you do?
1. Wear purple, or show visibility in other ways
We want to colour UT purple on Friday the 13th of December. Find your favourite purple sweater, shirt, suit, or even bathrobe, and wear it this Friday! If you are working from home, you can use one of the Teams backgrounds to show your support. You will find those backgrounds in the “Purple Friday Materials” folder below.
On Purple Friday the aim is to wear purple, but we don't need to limit LGBTQ+ visibility to one day per year. A symbol often used to refer to the LGBTQ+ community is the Rainbow Flag, or Pride Flag. You could subtly put this in your office to communicate that your office is a safe space for all colleagues and students. Some study advisors do this, for instance.
2. Respect people’s pronouns and normalise disclosing yours
Pronouns are the words we use to refer to ourselves and others. For example: Jade is carrying her bag. She is talking to Puck, who is looking at their phone. Beyond he/him and she/her, one can also use pronouns like they/them or combinations like she/they. When someone shares their pronouns, this is how they would like to be addressed, so it's expected to put the effort in to respect that.
Disclosing your pronouns can be scary, uncomfortable or even unsafe for certain people, especially if the pronouns don't match what people expect. Imagine a non-binary colleague not being able to use their pronouns out of fear for being bullied, discriminated, or "othered" in any other sense. That's why it's good to normalise the use of pronouns and talking about this, so everyone feels safe to disclose theirs.
To normalise pronoun use, you could do the following:
- Add your pronouns to your Canvas profile (using this guide)
- Add your pronouns to your Teams profile (using this guide)
- Add your pronouns to your email signature. People commonly put this behind their name, like John Johnson (he/him)
- When constructing a registration page for an event (e.g., conference or symposium), include a field that asks for pronouns. You can then print this on participants' name tag
3. Educate Yourself
Pronouns, gender, allies, there are quite some terms you might hear around you that spark interest, but you are not sure what they mean. To answer such questions and many more, Th!nk with Pride developed a compresensive Resources Page, with information on various topics, ranging from theory to practice, from UT internal systems to things you can apply everywhere.
Would you like to contribute?
Th!nk with Pride is the UT network for LGBTQ+ staff and students, dedicated to advancing LGBTQ+ visibility, equity, and inclusion within the university (together with allies!). We work to create an environment where every individual (from teachers to students, faculty to staff, and LGBTQ+ people to their allies) can be authentically themselves. We want to move, beyond tolerance to genuine celebration and integration across research, education, policy, and organizational practices.
And we can always use more active members. You can be active in a way that suits you: being a contact person for a faculty or other part of the organisation, joining as organising member, being involved for a specific theme (e.g., inclusive classroom or visibility).
If this sparks your interest and want to have a chat, let us know! Just to explore, no obligations.
Want to know more?
Have a look at the Purple Manifesto below, by Student Pride and COC (click to enlarge).
