Day of Remembrance and Purple Friday

I’ve been putting together a calendar of days of note for a 2SLGBTQIA+ community project, and along the way I came across two European observances I hadn’t previously encountered: Ukraine’s Day of Remembrance of Homosexuals and the Netherlands’ Purple Friday.

I did some digging to learn more about them and thought I’d share what I found. (Though I will know that I had to rely on Google Translate for several sources, especially those in Ukrainian.)

Day of Remembrance of Homosexuals (Ukraine)

The Day of Remembrance of Homosexuals was established in 2006 by a group of Ukrainian organizations to honour victims of systemic repression and discrimination during the Soviet period in Ukraine and to commemorate the anniversary of the decriminalization of consensual homosexual relations between men. 

On 24 August 1991, the Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council) adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence, formally separating Ukraine from the Soviet Union, a decision that was confirmed by referendum on 1 December. On 12 December, one of the first major human-rights reforms was the decriminalization of “voluntary homosexual relations” between adult men. The amendment took effect on 20 January 1992 and marked a significant milestone in the country’s progress toward LGBTQIA+ rights. (Sexual relations between women were never explicitly criminalized, though lesbians were persecuted, often through forced psychiatric institutionalization and abusive practices.)

Sodomy laws technically remained on the books until 1 January 2003, though after the 1992 amendment the definition was limited to nonconsensual acts between men. In 2015, Ukraine passed workplace anti-discrimination protections, but only after politicians assured the public that the law would not pave the way for marriage equality.

In 2016, a study by the human rights group Nash Svit and the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology revealed predominantly negative attitudes toward LGBT people: 60.4% of respondents held an unfavourable view, and only a third believed LGBT people deserved equal rights. However, by 2022 public opinion had shifted dramatically, as a new study showed. Negative perceptions fell to 38.2%, while positive views tripled to 12.8%. Support for equal rights grew from 33.4% in 2016 to 63.7% in 2022. Yet, when respondents were asked about specific rights, the picture was far less encouraging. Many more were comfortable with LGBT people serving in the military, but far less supportive of marriage equality or adoption rights for same-sex couples.

Ukraine was the first post-Soviet state to decriminalize homosexuality after gaining independence, but LGBTQIA+ rights have advanced unevenly. Same-sex couples still lack the same legal rights and protections available to heterosexual families, and social acceptance remains incomplete.

As Gays UA notes, December 12 serves as a day not only to remember past persecution, but also to continue the ongoing struggle for equality, safety, and human rights.

Purple Friday (Netherlands)

Established in December 2010, Purple Friday (Paarse Vrijdag) is an annual day of LGBTQIA+ solidarity in the Netherlands. It is held on the second Friday of December, when students, teachers, and allies wear purple to show visible support for LGBTQIA+ youth and to promote safe, inclusive school environments.

Inspired by Spirit Day, created by Canadian student Brittany McMillan in October 2010, Dutch student Nazmul Zaman decided to organize a smiliar campaign two months later. Both Spirit Day and Purple Friday use purple to represent the “spirit” stripe of the rainbow Pride flag. In the Netherlands, the day is coordinated by the national Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) Network and supported by COC Nederland, which is the country’s leading LGBTQIA+ rights organization, founded in 1946 and one of the oldest existing LGBTQ+ advocacy groups in the world.

What began as a small, organized action involving only a handful of schools has grown into a nationwide movement. Today, thousands of primary and secondary schools, universities, and youth organizations participate. Classrooms are decorated in purple, and students organize awareness events, discussions on inclusion, and activities that promote acceptance and understanding. In 2024, three-quarters of secondary schools took part; one in ten held full-scale celebrations of diversity, and many others offered additional lessons on LGBTQIA+ topics, diversity, and inclusion.

Despite the Netherlands’ reputation as a global leader in LGBTQIA+ rights (it was the first country to legalize marriage equality in 2001), research continues to show that LGBTQIA+ youth face disproportionate levels of harassment, social exclusion, and mental health challenges, and a recent survey showed that only 43% of young people in Amsterdam understood that two people of the same sex can be in love. Purple Friday encourages communities to build safer, more affirming spaces for queer and trans youth.

Purple Friday is both a celebration of inclusion and a reminder that equality requires ongoing compassion, education, and action. It is a day set aside each year for educators and students to advocate for acceptance, to push back against bullying, and to work together to establish schools as safer spaces where every young person can thrive.

Beginning next year, COC Nederland will move Purple Friday to October to avoid conflicts with the busy December period in Dutch schools.

For more information and educational resources, see COC Education’s page on Purple Friday.

Further reading

(Note: Many article titles have been translated into English from their original languages using Google Translate.)

Day of Remembrance of Homosexuals and LGBTQIA+ rights in Ukraine

• “On Amendments and Supplements to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of the Ukrainian SSR,” Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
• “Day of Remembrance of Homosexuals in Ukraine (victims of the totalitarian Soviet regime),” Gays UA
• “Ukraine passes law outlawing discrimination against gay workers,” Euro News
• “Ukranians have dramatically improved their attitude towards LGBT people,” Nash Svit Center
• “How Putin Inadvertently Boosted Support for LGBT Rights in Ukraine,” Time Magazine
• “‘It’s Even Worse Than Before’: How The ‘Revolution Of Dignity’ Failed LGBT Ukrainians,” Radio Free Europe
• “LGBTQ soldiers in Ukraine hope their service is changing attitudes as they rally for legal rights,” AP News
• “LGBT+ people of Ukraine during the full-scale war,” Insight Ukraine
• “LGBT troops on Ukraine’s front line fight homophobia at home,” BBC News
• “LGBTQ+ festival KharkivPride 2025 begins in Kharkiv, police mitigate conflict with right-wing, Christian groups,” Gwara Media

Purple Friday and LGBTQIA+ rights in the Netherlands

• “Students wear purple against homophobia,” COC
• “Purple Friday,” COC
• “Purple Friday celebrates being yourself in class,” AOb
• “Purple Friday: what is it and how can you participate?,” Untag
• “Purple Friday: in solidarity with the LGBTIQA+ community,” Hodgeschool Utrecht
• “Resistance against Purple Friday is growing in schools: survey,” Dutch News
• “Problems at secondary schools around Purple Friday,” NOS
• “Three quarters of secondary schools participate in Purple Friday, opinions are widely divided,” RTL
• “Dutch high school students wear purple on Friday to support LGBTQIA+ peers,” NL Times
• “Results Youth Health Monitor 2023,” Municipal Health Service Amsterdam
• “‘The Netherlands was progressive in terms of gay rights, but every year we slip further behind’,” Folia