PAARS

Main idea

The PAARS campaign calls on everyone at AUAS to wear the colour purple on the 17th of May, the international day against homophobia and transphobia (IDAHOT), to show students that they can be themselves at AUAS and to create awareness about LGBTI+ issues.

Outline

In 2010, 15-year-old American Brittany McMillan called on her fellow students via social media to wear purple, as a sign of solidarity with LGBT+ young people, who were often discriminated against and bullied. That so-called ‘Spirit Day’ was a great success and inspired organizations worldwide to show their support for LGBTI+ people.

Detailed description

The PAARS campaign is a campaign in Flanders organized by Wel Jong, a local LGBTI+ organization. It calls on everyone at school and in youth organizations to wear the colour purple on the 17^th of May, the international day against homophobia and transphobia (IDAHOT), to show that everyone belongs and can be themselves. The colour purple was chosen because it symbolizes strength and the courage you need to stand up for yourself and be who you are in the rainbow flag.

Although PAARS focuses on secondary schools and youth organizations, Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) chooses to participate as well.

In addition to asking staff and students to wear purple, there are multiple other initiatives to increase awareness:

• There are purple flags on campuses.
• Staff is encouraged to change the colour of their email signatures and to add their pronouns.
• There’s information made available about why stating your pronouns is helpful.
• Lecturers receive materials they can use in class, like video’s, information, a quiz…

Goals

• Showing students that they can be themselves at AUAS
• Creating awareness about LGBTI+ issues
• Encouraging students to question the gender binary
• Becoming a more gender inclusive place for students and staff

Obstacles targetted:

• Social obstacles

Students involvement

Students participate by wearing purple.

Inspiration and evidence

Spirit Day in the USA

Success criteria

• It increases visibility and awareness.
• PAARS offers staff and students a lot of small ways to show support and work towards inclusion (e.g., changing their email signature, showing a video in class…)

Points of attention

• The time and money needed to make students’ dreams come true when it comes to LGBTI+ inclusion isn’t currently available.
• It would be nice to involve students more in organizing PAARS.
• It’s important to work towards creating a safe(r) space for sexual minorities and trans and gender diverse students throughout the entire year.
• The PAARS campaign usually takes place for one day on or around IDAHOT (the 17^th of May), but ideally, it would last a week.
• The materials for lecturers could be sent out earlier, so they have more time to prepare.

Do you feel you can effectively provide the support that students require?

We somewhat agree.

Would you recommend this to other institutions?

strongly agree

Evaluation

PAARS isn’t evaluated with students, but it was mentioned during focus groups that were organized in the context of AUAS’ policy to become more gender inclusive.

The campaign is informally evaluated with staff after each edition.

Results

During these focus groups, students mentioned that they would like to see more efforts from AUAS to increase awareness of the theme and to support LGBTI+ students. Students came up with the idea to organize a whole week with lectures, activities, opportunities to meet each other…

The interviewee occasionally receives mails from students who were glad to see that AUAS organizes PAARS.

Communication

The campaign is mentioned:

• on posters,
• on a banner in the email signatures,
• in newsletters,
• on AUAS’ online platform (Dinar),
• on screens on campuses,
• on the social media accounts of the Office of Student Services,
• by communication coordinators at each department,
• on Yammer,
• etc.

 

Timing

The PAARS campaign usually takes place for one day on or around IDAHOT (the 17^th of May), but ideally, it would last a week.

Resources

• Dedicated staff
• Promo material (flags, posters, balloons…)

You can accomplish a lot with little money and time.

Extra information

• Paars campaign

Transferability

We think it is easily transferable to other contexts or groups.

It would be easily transferable to other groups (e.g., wearing pink for another underrepresented group of students), but it might be more difficult for another context due to the different political climates when it comes to gender diversity and sexual minorities.

Context

In Belgium, the rights of LGBT+ people are protected by law. This isn’t the case in many other countries (take a look at the Rainbow Ranking for more information).