Purple Friday will be celebrated this year at more than 1,700 primary schools, 1,000 secondary schools and vocational colleges, and an estimated 200 universities of applied sciences and university locations. The free Purple Friday packages made available by COC for secondary schools and vocational colleges had already sold out within a few days in November.

In addition to pupils, students and teachers wearing purple, organising all kinds of activities and decorating their school, COC is also organising a number of nationwide activities again this year.

Big Purple Friday Game Show

For upper-primary pupils, there is the Big Purple Friday Game Show. This educational, interactive quiz covers themes such as being yourself, falling in love, friendship and family. Pupils and teachers can take part and watch the quiz together in class via this link. The Game Show is hosted by Ridder van Kooten (known from Kinderen voor Kinderen) and Mitch Wolterink (Koos en Moos).

Primary schools are taking part in Purple Friday for the third time this year. In 2020, five hundred primary schools took part; by now, that number has grown to more than 1,700.

Teachers take the initiative at primary schools. ‘A child can have two mothers, your neighbour might be attracted to men,’ says teacher Joost, one of the teachers organising Purple Friday at a primary school in Amsterdam, explaining his motivation for taking part. ‘It is important that we stand for the acceptance and safety of all pupils.’

Talk show for secondary school pupils

For secondary schools and vocational colleges, COC developed the Purple Friday Talk Show. In the show, influencer and presenter Lotte van Eijk (Instagram: @Lovaeij) talks with pupils about themes such as identity, queerness, gender, sex diversity and religion. It is an accessible way to make sexual, gender and sex diversity topics open for discussion in the classroom. You can watch the show here.

Of course, the secondary school pupils from COC’s GSA Network are also organising numerous other activities at their secondary school or vocational college again this year. Many students at universities of applied sciences and universities are also organising activities on Purple Friday.

Very much needed

Attention to sexual, gender and sex diversity at school is still very much needed. LGBTQI+ pupils are bullied much more often than other pupils, and sometimes teachers even join in. ‘Homo’ is the most commonly used insult at school, and 14% of schools do nothing to promote LGBTQI+ acceptance, even though this has been mandatory since 2012. Suicide rates among LGBTQI+ young people are almost five times higher than average.

Purple Friday is organised by COC’s GSA Network together with teachers and pupils. A GSA is a group of pupils who believe that everyone at school has the freedom to be who they are, without having to be ashamed of or justify themselves for it. To this end, GSAs organise activities such as Purple Friday, with the support of COC Netherlands. GSAs are present at approximately 80 percent of secondary schools in the Netherlands. The first Purple Friday in the Netherlands was initiated by COC in 2010; at that time, a total of 150 schools took part.