Wear It Purple Day is a powerful movement to show rainbow young people they are seen, valued, and supported.
Image: Michael, Phi, and Ellie wearing purple and smiling at the camera.
Friday, 30 August, is Wear It Purple Day, dedicated to fostering supportive, safe, and inclusive environments for rainbow young people.
Wear It Purple Day began in 2010 in response to global stories of teenagers taking their own lives following bullying and harassment resulting from the lack of acceptance of their sexuality or gender identity. Since then, it has become a powerful movement that aims to show rainbow young people they are seen, valued, and supported.
Image: Wear It Purple Day official artwork created by Nicky Tsekouras. Text: Your Passion. Your Pride.
The Wear It Purple Day 2024 theme and artwork
The theme for 2024 is 'Your Passion, Your Pride', encouraging everyone to dream of brighter, more inclusive futures, and express their passion with pride.
Each year the Wear It Purple’s Youth Action Council (YAC) hosts a design competition to create a campaign message and artwork in celebration of LGBTQIA+ people openly and visibly achieving their dreams in sport, art, science and more. The 2024 winner of the competition was Nicky Tsekouras (They/Him/Her), a celebrated multidisciplinary visual artist and workshop facilitator.
Image: Artist Nicky Tsekouras standing in front of a colourful wall, smiling at the camera.
Nicky is a powerful role model for LGBTQIA+ youth, inspiring creativity and bringing community together, particularly through their work with young people. Their college workshops and art initiatives focus on expression, identity and community to create safe spaces and open environments where young people can freely express themselves.
Ashleigh's experience growing up queer
To acknowledge Wear It Purple Day and highlight the importance of visibility, Ashleigh Sternes, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, shared with us her experience growing up queer in regional Queensland.
Image: A close-up of Ashleigh Sternes, Diversity and Inclusion Lead, wearing a black top, smiling at the camera.
"Growing up in regional Queensland on Jagera and Giabal Country in the 90s and early 00s, I might have believed queer people didn’t exist. Being queer wasn’t something people talked about, and if they did, it was framed at one end, as something you had to hide, and at the other, something wrong with you."
"Whether it was casual homophobia in the schoolyard or comments from members of my own family along the lines of “people should be gay in the privacy of their own homes”, nothing around me told me it was okay to be queer, let alone something I could feel pride in."
"In acknowledgement of Wear It Purple Day, I wanted to share the importance of visibility and its positive impact on wellbeing. The higher rates of mental health issues in the LGBTQIA+ community are the result of the discrimination, bullying, violence and exclusion we often face from society."
"This pervasive stigma not only affects our wellbeing but also impacts our overall quality of life."
"In the workplace, only 37.4% of employees of diverse sexualities are out to everyone they work with; this drops to 33.1% for trans and gender-diverse employees. Whether people share this part of themselves is a personal choice, and they may decide not to for various reasons, but we have a responsibility to create workplaces where it is safe to be visible."
"At school, 60.2% of LGBTQIA+ young people report feeling unsafe or uncomfortable. 27.3% said LGBTQIA+ people were never mentioned in a supportive or positive way, and 40.8% have experienced verbal harassment based on their sexuality or gender identity."
"'You can’t be what you can’t see' and 'Be the person you needed when you were younger' are two reasons I’m passionate about being visible today.
"When LGBTQIA+ young people see people like themselves represented positively in their communities, it fosters a sense of belonging and inclusion."
"Wear It Purple Day is more than just a day to wear a splash of purple. It reminds us that every young person, regardless of their identity, has the right to be proud of who they are and to feel safe and supported."
"Let us work towards a future where visibility is the norm, not the exception."
Queer Conversations
Life Without Barriers stands with the LGBTQIA+ community every day, and we love to celebrate on the special days too!
We want our employees to be accepted and welcomed for the difference and diversity they bring. This means providing a safe and supportive workplace for everyone, inclusive of culture, ethnicity, faith, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, intersex status, and relationship status.
An important part of how we create an inclusive environment is through visibility and amplifying the voices of those with lived experience. Our employee network for LGBTQIA+ employees and their allies, Pride Without Barriers, launched the Queer Conversations video series, sharing the stories of our LGBTQIA+ employees on dates significant to the LGBTQIA+ community.
In two new episodes for Wear It Purple Day, Phi Theodoros, Resident Artist, sat down with Michael and Ellie, two LGBTQIA+ young people with a care experience, to chat about discovering their queer identities, the importance of LGBTQIA+ representation, role models and community connection, and their advice for other rainbow young people.
Why your participation matters
By wearing purple, you demonstrate to rainbow young people that they are celebrated and respected, creating a culture of inclusion and acknowledging that everyone has the right to be proud of who they are and who they are becoming.
How to get involved
Show your support by wearing something purple on Friday, 30 August.
Download Wear It Purple Day resources to print and create a display or share on social media.
Participate in or host a Wear It Purple Day event. You can check out the official workplace pack for ideas.
Submit a donation to Wear It Purple and help fund their work to foster supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments for rainbow young people.
Image: A group of staff celebrating Wear It Purple Day with a morning tea, held at the Deception Bay Office.
