The majority of secondary schools in the Netherlands are celebrating gender diversity through the Purple Friday project on December 13, but resistance against it is growing, surveys by NOS and RTL have shown.

Purple Friday, launched 14 years ago, puts the spotlight on LGBTQ pupils with children wearing purple to show their support for friends and classmates, special lessons and other activities.

According to RTL, some 75% of schools organise some sort of activity around Purple Friday but opinions about its effectiveness are divided.  And NOS says that 75% of schools that celebrate the day have experienced problems. Pupils have ripped posters from walls, called on their peers to wear black and in some cases, set fire to rainbow flags.

Some schools no longer focus on gender diversity but on a more general “Be Yourself-day” while some have given up completely, NOS found.

At the Zaanland Lyceum in Zaandam, “whole classes have turned up wearing black and a stink bomb was thrown at us,” 15-year-old Arthur who is one of the organisers of the activities at this school told the broadcaster.

Another pupil said she and fellow pupils had been pelted with water and videos had been put on social media saying “Look at this crazy lot”.  As a result, Purple Friday activities have been wound down at the school.

“We will not stop,” teacher Bas Hageman said. “That would be giving in to intimidation. Purple Friday zooms in on gender equality and diversity but in the end, it’s about equality in general. And that is something you have to explain to pupils,” he said.

According to research carried out on behalf of the education ministry in 2022, one in six pupils was afraid to come out as homosexual.

Freek Janssens of LGBTQ organisation COC Nederland said it is unacceptable that LGBTQ children are being bullied more than others. “Schools need to provide a safe environment. If groups need extra support schools have to find a way to show that,” he told the broadcaster.