Some of the SHOUT delegation in the Forum, Max Timmerman on the left. Photo Resource There are no purple or Progress Pride flags fluttering in the breeze at WUR today, as there are at Delft or Leiden University. Yet Purple Friday will not go unnoticed on campus: a delegation from SHOUT is present in the hall of the Forum to paint nails purple or immortalize passing students and staff in a purple photo booth.
Purple Friday is the second Friday in December, a day when secondary school and higher education students show their solidarity with LGBTQI+ people by wearing purple. This is an established tradition in many secondary schools, but more and more higher education institutions are starting to join in now too. ‘And that is no luxury,’ thinks SHOUT chairman Kees van Asselt. ‘There are still students who haven’t come out of the closet because LGBTQI+ people are not accepted in their social circles.’
Symbolic value
Compared to other student cities, the level of acceptance of LGBTQI+ people in Wageningen is not bad, thinks Master’s student Max Timmerman – and it’s certainly better than in Maastricht, where Timmerman did his Bachelor’s degree. But even in Wageningen there is still no sign of real inclusion yet, so the symbolic value of Purple Friday should not be underestimated, he reckons.
SHOUT chair Van Asselt’s thinking goes a step further: a permanent symbol of LGBTQI+ inclusion at WUR would be a good statement. His eyes wander around the hall, then linger on the stairs: ‘How about paint those in rainbow colours?’ he suggests. ‘That would make the campus a lot more purple permanently.’
