Purple Shirts and Social Causes

If you have Facebook, you've probably seen at least one event in the past few days about wearing purple of the 20th of October. You might be "attending" one, you might have ignored it. You might not even be sure what this whole purple thing is about.

Well, I'm here to tell you.

Over the past few months, six young men have lost their lives to suicide because of bullying. These individuals were bullied because of their sexual orientation, and each of their lives were ruined and eventually taken by the actions of their peers.

So on October 20th, people are rallying against bullying by throwing on a purple shirt. The organizer calls it Spirit Day. It's easy to do, and, although it doesn't do too much by itself, it shows solidarity and support, and raises awareness among youth. Some of you might remember the pink shirt campaigns to combat bullying: supporting a child who was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to his school. These boys didn't stick out because of the shirts they wore, they "stuck out" because of personal choices they each made.

I'm taking this day a step further.

As I mentioned, wearing a purple shirt won't do too much to combat attitudes toward various lifestyle choices. At my school, the University of British Columbia, I'm organizing a Free Hug Day event on the 20th, to coincide with the Spirit Day event. With help from our Pride Resource Centre on campus, I hope to be able to not only show support and hug some people, but also deliver information and resources to those who need or want it.

I encourage all of you to support the purple shirt event, and to become involved in local LGBTQQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, queer, questioning, and ally) organizations throughout the year. Note that "A" on the end: it stands for "Ally." An ally is anyone, regardless of his or her sexual orientation or gender identity, who stands up for the human and civil rights of LGBTQ people.

Now, if you don't mind, I have some planning and networking to do

update, Oct 8th: It seems that I'm not the only one looking to run an event on campus that day. October 20th will now host a 2-part event: the aforementioned Free Hug Day, hopefully with the Pride Centre and the Equity Office on hand, as well as an equality and diversity night in one of our residence buildings, again with the Pride Centre and Equity Office present. Maybe we'll even rent the campus theatre and show Rent afterwards. This is snowballing so quickly!

wristband photo by me