Wear It Purple Day: History, Statistics & Tips (Queer Town)

hey folks my name is Archie I use they them pronouns and I am very very proudly the founder and CEO at qu toown and I'm here today to say happy wear a purple day so in this short video I want to take a moment to firstly acknowledge what where at purple day is acknowledge its history and why you're wearing purple today if you managed to find any in your wardrobe I did struggle to be honest secondly I want to share a couple of stories and experiences from the community to provide cont context and thirdly I want to give you some very basic tips and strategies so if you're feeling motivated or you're feeling like you want to act upon your ally ship you have ways to do that after this video so let's talk about where at purple day quick content warning there are going to be references to poor mental health and suicide so I'm going to take you back to 2010 and I'm going to share a name with you Tyler Clemente so Tyla was born and raised in New Jersey in America and was born in 1991 so was a year older than I am in 2010 Tyler was 18 had just entered college and Tyler was an incredible musician he was particularly proficient in violin and he was actually the concert Master at his local Orchestra so he worked incredibly hard was incredibly talented and had a lot of potential and at that time at that college people were assigned doorm mates at random and so when that door mate received Tyler's name he did a bit of a Google Search and he saw that Tyler had posted on a public sort of lgbtiqa plus online Forum so this dorm mate tweeted out to their followers his followers I've just found out I'm living with a gay person so that was really the kind of only context there they started living together where it starts to get a little heavy is unfortunately one night Tyler's doormat set up a webcam with a friend to film without his awareness and without his consent while he was in the privacy of his own bedroom so Tyler had a friend over that night I use the term friend I'm not sure what the relationship was but the video footage captured Tyler and this other person this other boy kissing which you know sounds like pretty normal behavior in a dorm room to me the dorm mate found it in the footage and tweeted this out publicly without Tyler's consent it's worth noting that Tyler had only recently come out to his family it's on record that his mom had struggled a little bit with it and then he'd moved to college so he's in a pretty vulnerable position and then suddenly without his control this footage is circulated publicly and sadly a couple of days later Tyler did end up taking his own life that case itself it gained a lot of traction in America people started to hear about it and learn about it and see how horrible and cruel and disturbing it was and it reached as far as you know Barack Obama was talking about it during his presidency Madonna herself um put a picture of Tyler up during her concert at that time so Tyler's story was heard and shared and a young woman heard the story and she took it upon herself to start Spirit day and it's still celebrated today in America and it's a day where people wear purple and you may not be aware there but the rainbow flag that reflects our communities each of those colors has a different meaning and The Color Purple within our Flag represents Spirit you know the spirit of our community the spirit of resilience the spirit of individuality it's what we celebrate over here as we're at purple day and I just think it's so cool and Powerful that Tyler's life you know it held meaning he has a legacy and 14 years later here we are qu toown is creating this video all week I've been working with different businesses with people rooms filled with people wearing purple and that's a legacy to Tyler so that's a little bit about the history of wear it purple day but why do we still celebrate it today and the reason is although we've made a lot of progress here in Australia we have a long way to go so I'm going to share a few statistics with you now to show you where we're at here in Australia today so these stats come from two studies both australian-based both done in 2020 one's called writing themselves in and the other is called private lives they found that in the past year almost 60% of young lgbtiqa plus Australians had experienced verbal abuse almost 80% of students and teachers living in Regional and remote parts of the country had heard negative comments made about members of our community and finally they found that almost 60% of young lgbti QA plus Australians had seriously considered suicide in the past 12 months so while we've made a lot of progress as a community we have a long way to go and that's why days like we at purple day are so important to open conversation to show our allyship and support to listen and learn from members of the community so that's why we are so grateful that you are taking the time to do that today okay so I wanted to finish today's video with a few quick tips that you can Implement Beyond we at purple day and I thought I'd do it in a short-term medium-term and long-term option so when it comes to right now don't wait to be called upon engage now often times we might feel as though it's not our place to engage if we don't identify with the community but trust me we need our allies our allies are a huge reason why we gain momentum why we gain support So engaging can be in the privacy of your own living room watching a documentary one of many is Paris is burning it's an amazing way to learn a bit of History particularly around trans and gender diversity and ball culture and Vogue culture and you know drag culture you can also wear your ally ship and it's such a powerful thing to do if you have a rainbow pin or a rainbow lanyard for those who don't need it they may not even notice it but for those of us in the community I can say with confidence it's like a beacon of allyship my second tip is a medium-term and it's around the way that we communicate with others and if you're wanting people in your life to know that you're a safe person for them to express themselves to or open up to you need to role model that as well rather than going up to someone and saying are you gay or if you want to come out to me you can which would be pretty confronting other options are to share a little bit about yourself in a way that feels appropriate and safe and authentic there are little ways you can drop hints as well if you talk openly about maybe an lgbtiqa plus person in your life that is a clear sign to those around you that you're an ally that you're someone who's open and comfortable what I will say is you know if you're not a qualified therapist you don't need or maybe shouldn't try to be one there are amazing Services out there one example is switchboard so if you find that someone's disclosing something that you think is troublesome or they need extra support or you don't have the the capacity or the skills to do so looking for resources like switchboard for example they're great places to go and you can provide that resource to that person and check in with them along the way my final tip which is more of a long-term one is set an action plan it's as simple as long-term medium-term shortterm like these tips so your long-term goal might be let's make sure our policies use inclusive language or let's make sure that we go to Pride March next year and show support to our local community whatever that goal is for you name it and work backwards what do we need to bring together to make this happen what people do we need to get involved some of them will be internal but a really key part of this is external consultation don't put the pressure on the lgbtiqa plus people in your team to have all the answers they're not necessarily trained professionals or Educators just because they're members of the community so reach out to an organization like quer toown we provide ongoing training consultation bespoke workshops and we're here to help but by setting those goals and evaluating your progress that's how you make momentum so that's all for today's video I hope that it was helpful and useful I want to say thank you again so much for acknowledging not only wear it purple day but supporting the lgbtiqa plus community Community as you saw in those statistics we really really need it and it's no exaggeration to say an inclusive workplace or an inclusive environment it can save lives so thank you again thank you for investing and engaging with qu town if you'd like to find us you can find us at quer town.com AU and learn about our offerings and our work you can find us on LinkedIn you can find myself Archie Beetle at LinkedIn and you'll find us on Instagram as well so good luck over there don't be afraid to reach out and happy wear a purple day