Celebrating Wear It Purple

What is Wear It Purple and why it’s so important

Never heard of Wear It Purple before? That’s OK, we’re here to tell you more. As a volunteer-led and run organisation, Wear It Purple strives to foster supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments for rainbow young people. Founded back in 2010 in response to the global realities that rainbow young people were taking their own lives following bullying and harassment resulting from the lack of acceptances of their sexuality or gender identity. Wear It Purple was established to show young people throughout the world that there is hope – and they have the absolute right to be proud of who they are. Since then, the organisation has developed into a massive global movement – with more and more generations of rainbow young people dedicating themselves and their time to promoting the expression of support and acceptance to rainbow young people. At its core – their message is simple yet powerful: Everybody has the right to be proud of who they are.

The power of Wear It Purple Day

Every year thousands of schools, community organisations, universities and workplaces hold events across Australia on the last Friday of August for Wear It Purple Day. As a day of significance for many Australians, it focuses on our LGBTQIA+ youth and the issues they face, whilst showing them they have the right to be proud of who they are and who they are becoming. Wear it Purple Day is now an international movement of expression, celebration and support. By wearing purple this August 26, you’ll demonstrate to hundreds of thousands of rainbow young people across Australia that you see them, support them, and respect them.

The key areas Wear It Purple focuses on

There are four key areas that the WIP draw their attention to. These are awareness, opportunity, environment and collaboration. Awareness allows them to provide support and resources for schools, universities, gender and sexual alliances as well as youth organisations who are looking to create inclusive experiences for rainbow young people. Opportunity ensures they provide meaningful opportunities for rainbow young people to develop their skills, expand their networks and contribute to the inclusivity of their communities. Environment provides the chance to create and enable supportive and safe spaces (both online and in real life), while collaboration ensures they unite with other organisations to further the inclusion of rainbow young people.

The positive outcomes to come from their ongoing support

There are so many positive outcomes to the causes Wear It Purple is fighting for, and these include (but are not limited to) advocacy and empowerment of rainbow young people, celebration and promotion of the value in diversity and inclusive in community settings, raised awareness of sexuality, sex and gender identify – which helps to challenge harmful social cultures, as well as the increased confidence in rainbow young people to be who they are – without fear or concern.

Bringing awareness to these issues within your workplace or own circle of family and friends

There are plenty of ways you can get involved. You could hold or attend panels and keynote events – remember the power of storytelling and visibility enables rainbow youth to connect to community and gain strength hearing about common struggles and opportunities to triumph. You could prioritise key issues through your pride employee network groups where you champion topics like pronouns, gender affirmation and identity, inclusive language and how to be an active ally. You could also continue conversations – that is, beyond Wear It Purple day. These can deliver safety in classrooms and workplaces across the country.

When nudie met Wear It Purple

Beyond our love of the colour purple, as organisations, we’re both very focused on creating goodness within ourselves and our communities. That’s why for this year’s event, we’ve donated 1,500 x 200ml kids juice and helped raise much-needed funds for the cause. We’re also celebrating Wear It Purple day this year with lots of delicious cupcakes and purple food, costumes, speeches and a festive spirit in the office.

For more information, resources, communication support or to donate, head to the Wear It Purple website: www.wearitpurple.org