Coming Out Day at HAN on awareness and respect: you can be who you are
Coming Out Day is an international day of awareness and respect for LGBTIQ+ persons. The day returns annually on 11 October, this year on a Tuesday.
A key statement of this day is: be yourself, regardless of your sexual orientation or gender identity. Many government buildings, including HAN, therefore put out the rainbow/diversity flag to show support for Coming Out Day.
Inclusive college
“Coming Out Day is also about raising awareness. For HAN, that is an important issue,” says HAN lecturer and trustee Nevzat Cingoz. As a representative of the HAN diversity network, he is committed to achieving an inclusive university of applied sciences where everyone feels safe and accepted. “A college that thinks it is important that you are who you are and that you are allowed to be who you want, without someone else judging you for it. After all, we are a diverse and inclusive college.”
HAN College President Rob Verhofstad agrees. “Our university of applied sciences can be seen as a mini-society, within which students can learn to get on well with others. As HAN, we also have social goals, such as contributing to social cohesion in society. Students can only learn well if they can also be themselves in the development of this identity.”
Student Rochella Jans, spoke at the Nijmegen campus on behalf of central Participation Council. She stressed the importance of Coming Out Day and that the Participation Council was very happy with the presence of the HAN Executive Board, its staff and the involvement of students. A striking number of international Social Work students were present at this meeting.
Why Coming Out Day?
The term ‘Coming Out’ refers to the idea of ‘coming out of the closet’. Many young and old people use Coming Out Day as an extra push to ‘come out of the closet’. They then tell friends, classmates or family members that they are lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, intersex or queer. This is often a great relief for the person in question, especially if the response is positive.
GSA HAN
Meanwhile, did you know that a Gender & Sexuality Alliance (GSA) has been set up that organises special activities for and by HAN students?
- For more information, visit this GSA HAN instagram account!
Week of inclusion
What do you think? How inclusive is HAN? Possibly we can still improve a lot together. That is why HAN is organising Inclusion Week from 7 to 10 November, to start the conversation about inclusion together. Because this topic deserves our attention, so do and talk with us!
Sources: HAN, COC
Photography: HAN