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VU Pride

Welcome to VU Pride, the network for and by LGBTQIA+ students and employees of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

VU Pride aims to create a safe and inclusive environment for all individuals of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community on our campus. We aspire to have an university full of diversity in which everyone shares understanding and tolerance for each other. We achieve this by organizing events and projects for people within the LGBTQIA+ community and for all those interested. Check below to see more about our upcoming events, our committees, our achievements, and more. We hope to meet you soon!

Follow us on Instagram! And be sure to subscribe for our newsletter!

Did you already read the interview from topuniversities.com with us? 

PRIDE LIBRARY HAS MOVED!

Our Pride Library has moved to the 11th floor of the University Library. You are still welcome to study, have a chat and check out our collection. Learn more about the Pride Library at the bottom of this page. 

Our mission

  • Working on a more inclusive organization
  • Building a community for LGBTQIA+ students and employees
  • Creating visibility around gender and sexual diversity, and sharing knowledge about it.

Read our entire mission and vision document here. 

Call for abstracts for LGBTQIA+ research day

LGBTQIA+ Research Day 2023 is approaching! Scheduled for December 8 in Utrecht, our focus is "Connecting Places and Spaces." We invite scholars to share their interdisciplinary insights on gender, sexuality and queerness. We welcome empirical papers, panel proposals, master's thesis results and art-based presentations. Deadline for submissions: Oct. 8, 2023. For complete details and submission guidelines, click here. Questions? Contact LGBTQIAresearchday.2023@gmail.com.

VU Pride’s tips & tricks for an inclusive teaching environment

With great pride we would like to introduce our latest VU Pride creation: a document with Tips & Tricks for teachers (to be) on an inclusive teaching environment. Click here to access the document (Dutch)

This short documents sums up what teachers can do to:

  • Make their classroom a safe(r) place for LGBTQIA+ students
  • Make their classes and literature more reflective of the LGBTQIA+ community
  • Be more inclusive in the way they address their students
  • And much more. 

Are you a teacher or TA? Please enjoy our document, which is hopefully an easy way to be more inclusive in your teaching.
Are you a (former) student? Please send this document to your teacher(s) if you think it might be of interest to them.

VU Pride's Guide for Trans, Intersex, Non-binary Students and Staff at VU Amsterdam 

VU Pride has developed a practical, hands-on guide for trans, non-binary and intersex students and staff, to provide helpful resources and concrete answers to frequently asked questions. You can download the guide here

Gender-inclusive toilets

Recently, with the efforts of VU Pride and the facilities department, at least 1 gender-inclusive toilet in every building has been realised. There are no doll-icons on the door, as with the men's and women's toilets. The toilets have sit-down toilets with wastebaskets next to them for menstrual products, for example. You can find where these toilets are in the list below. 

  • Main building: A-wing: 0A-T4, 4A-T2, 7A-T1, 15A-T4 E-wing: 2E-T1 and 2E-T2
  • Initium: 2B-T2
  • MF building: B-wing: B253, B255 C-wing: C163, C165 D-wing: DK18c F-wing: F024, F026a
  • New University building: 1A-T4
  • ACTA: 0Z-T01
  • Transitorium:  K1E-T38
  • W&N building: N-055a F-006
  • OZW building: 00-T1
  • O|2 Lab building: 0E T1

Please share your experience with these toilets, whether it is positive, negative or neutral. This way the VU Amsterdam can keep improving the quality of the gender-inclusive toilets. Also, if you have any questions or suggestions on gender-inclusive toilets at VU Amsterdam please share this too. You can share this via this email address.

Upcoming events

Coming Out Day, October 11
Every year, an amazing party is organized by Pride University on Coming Out Day. We're kicking off the new academic year in collaboration with the pride networks of UvA, HvA, Inholland, and ROCvA. Are you joining the celebration?
📅 Wednesday, October 11 🕝 17:00 - 21:00 📍 Club Nyx (Reguliersdwarsstraat 42) 🎟️ Link 💶 Free

Official Opening of the New Pride Library Location
The Pride Library has moved from the 2nd to the 11th floor. We will be celebrating the new location with a photo exhibition featuring the graduation work of former student Iza Awad, which focuses on new synthetic materials from Kombucha. Will you come take a look at our new space?
📅 TBA 🕝 TBA 📍 11th floor UB Tower, behind the elevators 🎟️ No ticket required 💶 Free

LGBTQIA+ Research Day, December 8
Join the LGBTQIA+ Research Day: "Connecting Places and Spaces" on December 8 in Utrecht. Explore and bridge various insights about gender, sexuality, and queerness across different disciplines. Want to present something? Send in your abstracts by September 24, 2023. Participation is free, and more information will follow soon.
📅8 December 🕝10:00 - 17:00 📍Utrecht (exact location soon) 🎟️ soon 💶free

Weekly on Tuesdays: Study Group
Want to relax, grab a coffee, and study with other VU Pride supporters? Every Tuesday from 12:00 to 17:00, you're welcome to join us for group studying. These study groups are unstructured, so feel free to drop in between classes or stay the entire time—it's up to you. It's a great opportunity to get to know your fellow VU Pride members while also getting your work done! If you're interested in organizing study groups or other events in the library, let us know at pride@vu.nl.
📅 Every Tuesday 🕝 12:00 - 17:00 📍 Pride Library (HG 11th floor, B-wing) 🎟️ No ticket required 💶 Free

Monthly: Games Night
Every month, VU Pride organises a fun game night in the Pride Library. We have a number of board games here, but feel free bring your own. You are welcome from 5 pm so you can go straight from your lecture to the game night. We hope to see you there!

Schedule
See Instagram for more information.

Become a supporter or a member

Would you like to receive our updates? Then you can subscribe as a VU Pride Supporter! This entails that you will be updated on all the work we are doing, upcoming events, information about possible vacancies, and we will sometimes ask your help through surveys or with other types of research. Would you like to be more involved within VU Pride? We would love to hear from you! Contact us via pride@vu.nl. You can find the possible committees you can sign up for on te bottom of this page under 'Meet our Committees!'.

Pride Library

On Purple Friday 2021, we officially opened our Pride Library. In our Pride Library you will find hundreds of rainbow books, both fiction, non-fiction and academic work. You can borrow the books through the University Library's lending system or enjoy them in the space itself. Aside from reading you will be able to play one of our (queer) board games, use the space to collaborate with other amateur writers, or host poetry slams and other social activities. Come take a look soon, you can find the Pride Library in the main building on the 11th floor behind the elevator group in the B wing.

More about us

  • Meet our Committees!

    VU Pride has a number of committees. Please email pride@vu.nl if you would like to join one or more committees.

    Peer Support committee organizes the VU Pride TalkS! These are sessions you can attend to talk about your daily experiences as an LGBTQIA+ person. Email the committee

    SCAF committee (Science, Culture, Arts & Fun) provides fun get-togethers with our supporters and friends. Previously, we organized a pub quiz, a party and much more. Mail the committee

    Movie subcommittee is a part of SCAF. The movie committee wants to screen movies featuring LGBTQIA+ people on campus. VU Pride collaborates with the Amsterdam movie house organization Rialto on campus.

    VU Pride Library committee provides our own space in the university library with fiction and non-fiction books on LGBTQIA+ topics. Email the committee

    Social Media Committee takes care of all the great posts on our Instagram page and elsewhere. Email the committee

    Academic committee is a committee organized by staff. Among other things, it organizes the Wild Wednesday Webinars, in which a scholars shared their research on LGBTQIA+ topics. Watch our YouTube channel for past webinars. In addition, this committee organizes an annual symposium in collaboration with other universities. For more info, email LGBTQIAresearchday.2023@gmail.com 

  • You can’t have a rainbow without any rain, VU Pride TalkS! and more

    One way in which we bring people together is through the peer support group we organize: VU Pride talks!. We discuss a different topic related to our community every month. One evening we talked about gender expression for instance and another about mental health as an LGBTQIA+ person. VU Pride Talks is a safe space for people to share experiences, vent and lift each other up. It has been great that we could still provide that sense of community online during the pandemic. Sessions are announced here on our website and on our Instagram page.

    There are also many other initiatives on campus focus on wellbeing, which you can find here.

    If you are feeling depressed or suicidal, please reach out to the social safety team of VU Amsterdam. You can find more info and contact details here. 

    You can also sign up for Praat Online, an online programme from the University of Groningen for people with suicidal thoughts and how to deal with them. 

  • Social safety @ VU Amsterdam

    Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam does not tolerate any form of discrimination, intimidation, bullying, sexual harassment or other behaviours that violate our Principles. These constitute undesirable conduct and they have no place at VU Amsterdam. Any form of behaviour or communication that makes you feel unsafe or that makes you afraid is worth reporting. To report this kind of behaviour, or to ask a question, contact the confedential counsellor or the social safety coordinator. You can find more information on the page Inappropriate behaviour.

  • Our achievements
    • A monthly series of webinars, fully focused on queer science! The Wild Wednesday Webinars
    • In cooperation with the IT team of VU, the pronoun options on both Zoom and Canvas have been adapted to be more inclusive
    • Hosting of a monthly peer support group, various movie nights, karaoke nights, ‘VU Pride Social Hour’ and many more fun events.
    • Establishing of a working group on bi+ issues, to give this often overlooking group their well-deserved place within the community.
    • Setting up a list with over 1,000 books which will soon be found in the Pride Library
    • Developing and sharing materials to make the curricula at VU Amsterdam more inclusive in the area of sexual and gender diversity.
    • Setting up a network with eight student ambassadors, in different faculties.
    • Informing policy makers at VU Amsterdam on the necessity of gender inclusive toilets. The first toilets are already there, with hopefully many more to follow!
    • And much, much more. Would you like to hear all about our achievements? Sign up as VU Pride Supporter!

Contact

Do you have any questions? Feel free to contact us! And if you want to become a VU Pride supporter and receive our newsletter, please fill in the form.

Follow us on Instagram to be the first to know about new events, and on Youtube you can relive past events.