The City of Greater Geelong encourages community members to don their best purple attire and start a conversation for Wear It Purple Day on Friday 27 August.

Wear it Purple Day is a youth-led annual event in celebration of diversity and young people from the LGBTIQA+ community.

The annual awareness day started in Australia back in 2010 in response to bullying and harassment towards LGBTIQA+ young people.

Now 11 years on, people from across the globe unite each year to advocate for supportive, safe, empowering and inclusive environments for rainbow young people globally.

This year’s theme is ‘Start the Conversation. Keep it going’ and encourages discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity on Wear It Purple Day and every day of the year.

Greater Geelong Mayor Stephanie Asher encouraged community members to put on their purple attire on Friday 27 August:-

“Wear It Purple Day is a really important day for our LGBTIQA+ community”.

“While we may not be able to celebrate in-person right now, I encourage community members to sift through their closets, find their best purple items to wear on Friday 27 August and share their outfits online to show their support”.

“As a community, we should make sure we are having conversations in our workplaces, classrooms and community spaces to ensure they are welcoming and inclusive places for LGBTIQA+ community members”.

To celebrate this year’s theme and to raise awareness, participants of the City’s Gender and Sexuality Project (GASP) will share some amazing artwork and inspirational messages throughout the day on social media.

The catenary lights at the intersection of Moorabool and Malop Street and the festoon lights in Little Malop Central will both shine purple on Friday night in acknowledgement.

Junior Mayor Elliot Nicholas emphasized the importance of inclusive spaces for LGBTIQA+ young people:-

“To truly create an inclusive and safe environment for LGBTIQA+ young people, we need to be having these important conversations year-round in our homes, classrooms and workplaces.  Discussions on the importance of pronouns, inclusive language and gender affirmation are some great places to start”.

I look forward to seeing the great content from GASP on social media and the community’s support and ongoing conversations as a result.

To get involved at home, the community is encouraged to wear purple on Friday 27 August and share their outfits and support on social media with the hashtag #WIPD2021.

To see the posts from GASP on social media follow Geelong Youth on Facebook and Instagram

For more information on Wear It Purple Day, how to be an ally for LGBTIQA+ community members and other resources visit the Wear it Purple Day website. W