Wear it Purple Day is an annual LGBTQIA+ awareness day especially for young people, based in Australia. Supporters wear purple to celebrate diversity and young people from the LGBTQIA+ community.
The Day is organised by Wear it Purple, a student run, not-for-profit organisation, providing presentations and workshops.
Businesses, councils, schools, community groups and clubs can participate by wearing purple and hosting events.
History It is celebrated on the last Friday in August each year in Australia and was launched in 2010. Previous years have celebrated the day in September or October. The day was co-founded by Katherine Hudson and Scott Williams, when Hudson was in high school and Williams was in the first year of university. Hudson graduated from Burwood Girls High School in 2011, which was later a site of controversy due to the Wear it Purple Day events involving screening the film Gayby Baby.
Wear it Purple Day was created in response to the suicide of New Jersey teen Tyler Clementi.
Symbolism Hudson states that she "...saw purple as a way of bringing people together from all different backgrounds and creating one thing…a symbol of unity..." Williams found that working with Wear it Purple has given him a more positive perspective.
The first Wear it Purple Day asked participants to wear a purple arm band "...to show support for queer teens at risk." The day's focus has changed from initially being about sorrow and self-harm prevention, to a celebration of rainbow youth and pride.
Celebrations and support The first Wear it Purple Day in 2010 was supported by the Federal Minister for Health, the Teachers Federation, Coming Out Australia and RUOK?. Members of Parliament from almost all parties attended Wear it Purple Day's inaugural reception. At the reception, Adrian Piccoli (then-Education Minister) mentioned the progress of the pilot Proud Schools program, and committed the continuing the program. The Proud Schools program ceased in 2015.
Wear it Purple Day received a funding grant in 2012 (as part of Mental Health Week) from the NSW Mental Health Association and ACON.
The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has included a Wear it Purple float in the parade in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018. Both the 2017 and 2018 floats were run in conjunction with the NSW Police Force GLLOs (Gay and Lesbian Liaison Officers). The Australian Pride Network awarded the Wear it Purple stall at Fair Day with Best Fair Day Youth Stall (2014), and Best Community stall (2016). In a 2011 interview, co-founder Scott Williams highlighted the importance of Mardi Gras to young people, and for Wear it Purple to participate and bring visibility to young rainbow people.
The Department of Health celebrated Wear it Purple Day in 2015 by inviting staff to a forum with guest speakers from headspace, Safe Schools Coalition ACT, and ACT Sexual Health and Family Planning.
The council, City of Sydney has used purple lighting to illuminate town hall to demonstrate their support for the day in 2016.
Police have shown their support by wearing purple uniforms while patrolling in the community in Tamworth, Queensland and Southwest Sydney in 2016. Queensland Police Service officers wore purple bootlaces for the day in 2015. Police in NSW have participated in Wear it Purple Day since 2012, through school visits and presentations, community activities and on social media. Police Transport Command officers in Sydney celebrated Wear it Purple Day in 2014 by wearing purple wristbands and decorating their command buses. NSW Police began participating because of their concerns over youth suicide rates and to highlight that police are part of the community, and their role in preventing homophobic and transphobic bullying and crime. Other emergency sector organisations supporting Wear it Purple Day include Queensland Ambulance Service (2015), and in 2014; NSW Emergency Service, the Ambulance Services of NSW, Fire and Rescue NSW, the NSW Rural Fire Service and the Australian Federal Police. Defence staff have also participated, with encouragement from Defence Gay and Lesbian Information Service (DEFGLIS). The Navy's Systems Training School at HMAS Watson hosted events for Wear it Purple Day in 2013.
There has also been strong support from the banking sector, including screenings for employees of Westpac, Macquarie Bank and NAB. Telstra provided support for the Day in 2014 with resource packs on cyber-bullying for all registered schools in Australia.
Other organisations and businesses have hosted purple-themed events including dress-up photo booths and rainbow zinc face-painting, exhibitions with music, art and workshops, and an Instagram Scavenger Hunt.
Morning teas have included purple cupcake stalls and purple-inspired food creations in bake-offs. Northholm Grammar School hosted a fundraising poetry slam for Wear it Purple Day in 2015.
Wear it Purple Day has also been celebrated beyond Australia. In 2013 the Gay, Transgender, Lesbian, Bisexual (GTLB) Diversity Project and Youth Alley hosted celebrations in Timaru (New Zealand).
The 2015 Wear it Purple Day was highlighted by the Andrews Labor government, who marked the day by announcing a round of small grants to support LGBTI young people.
In 2018, residents of Hepburn House aged care facility in Daylesford, showed their support for young queer people by celebrating the day with students from Daylesford Secondary College.
Widespread use of hashtags #wearitpurple and #beproudofwhoyouare included selfies, personal stories and event documentation to demonstrate support and increase visibility.
Recognition and awards
Recognition Wear it Purple Day was highlighted as a successful grassroots campaign at the National Safe Schools Symposium in 2012.
The Western Australia Equal Opportunity Commission (WAEOC) celebrated Wear it Purple Day in 2014 by releasing online guidelines: Supporting Sexual and Gender Diversity in Schools. The guidelines focus on assisting students who experience homophobic bullying. For Wear it Purple Day in 2016, WAEOC promoted its participation in the ALLY program, which supports increasing understanding of diversity.
In 2016, co-founder Hudson received recognition for her LGBTI advocacy by featuring in a mural by street artist Kaff-eine in ANZ's Street Art Project.
Celebrity recognition Madonna mentioned the Wear it Purple campaign in 2011.
Parliamentary recognition Minister Matt Kean highlighted Wear it Purple Day in his inaugural speech to Parliament in 2011.
Penny Sharpe submitted a motion to the NSW Upper House of Parliament in 2012, for the group's achievements to be acknowledged.
Wear it Purple Day 2014 was acknowledged by the Australian Senate in a motion submitted by Senator Sarah Hanson-Young.
Awards A student at Victor Harbor High School, Gemma Cole, helped to run Wear It Purple Day at her school in 2011, and then received the 2011 Lions Club Citizenship Award at her graduation in 2011.
NSW’s LGBTI community awarded co-founders Katherine and Scott with the Young Achiever Award at the 2013 Honour Awards.
Jayde Ellis, 2013 spokesperson of Wear it Purple Day, received a Safer Communities Award in the 2014 National Youth Awards.
Teacher Alex Stefan of Colo High School in the Hawkesbury, was nominated for a 2017 Honour Award for starting the first LGBTI group at the school and promoting school-wide celebrations of Wear it Purple Day.
Opposition and criticism
2023
Australian Defence Force Academy complaints In 2023, students at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) complained that they felt pressured to participate in Wear It Purple Day. A spokesperson noted that Defence personnel voluntarily participate in a range of diversity events.
2020
Gender fluidity materials In 2020, Mark Latham stated that Wear It Purple Day distributed information which sexualised children. The information about tucking and other topics was from third party websites and the NSW Department of Education stated that these references were uploaded to the teachers' resource hub (education portal) without permission and had been removed.
2018 Rainbow flag negative response In 2018, students in Castlemaine Secondary College's Diversity group raised a rainbow flag on the school grounds, alongside Wear It Purple Day, in support of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT). Some students loudly expressed their opposition to the flying of the flag on the pole normally used for the Australian flag. In the time since, the school has begun to fly the rainbow flag each day, but it has been subject to vandalism.
2017
Opposition in businesses and schools In March 2017, Liberal Senator Eric Abetz complained that the Department of Finance was "reverse bullying", by pressuring staff into participating in Wear it Purple Day.
In an August 2017 commentary piece in The Australian, Kevin Donnelly (Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University) opposed the Australian Education Union's promotion of Wear it Purple Day. He stated that the campaign was evidence of the "cultural left" dominating the education system. Donnelly had previously noted similar views about the cultural left in a March 2017 opinion piece in the Daily Telegraph. His discussion of identity politics stated that the "LGBTQ agenda" [sic] dominates the education system through activities such as school celebrations of the "national Wear it Purple campaign" [sic].
Miranda Devine has written that Christian employees of organisations which have signed up to the marriage equality campaign, now feel frightened and intimidated at work. Devine claimed that a Telstra employee was re-sent a "mandatory" Wear it Purple event invitation multiple times by executive staff.
Alleged "rainbow hijacking" In 2017, parents at Kambala School complained about posters promoting a "Wear it Rainbow" event linked with Wear it Purple Day. It was reported in The Australian that the school was being subjected to "rainbow hijacking" [sic]. The posters were removed because they were not authorised by the school's management, but principal Shane Hogan advised the media that the school would still celebrate the day itself. Angela Priestley's reply to the "rainbow hijacking" article noted that the posters were installed by students, and that the concerned parents should have approached the school's principal.
During an August 2017 interview on 2GB radio with Ray Hadley, NSW Education Minister Rob Stokes noted that school principals had been notified to take care around diversity issues (including Wear it Purple Day) in the context of the marriage equality plebiscite.
2016
Rainbow noose meme
The Marriage Alliance group created a "rainbow noose" for campaign material against marriage equality, in February 2016. The advertisement depicted a rainbow noose around a praying woman's neck with the tagline "Same sex marriage increases PC bullying in the workplace". Marriage Alliance spokesperson Sophie York told Four Corners that the meme was inspired by a "workplace incident" of a man's concern about receiving an email about his workplace's participation in "Wear Purple day" [sic]. The advertisement was later banned by the Advertising Standards Bureau. The group was condemned for their rainbow noose meme by Tim Watts in Federal Parliament on 4 February 2016.
2015
Safe Schools Program