The White House has issued its support for Spirit Day on Thursday, along with Ellen DeGeneres, The View co-hosts and CNBC anchors. The White House changed its Twitter and Facebook photo purple.
“If you visit Facebook today, or Twitter, or Tumblr, there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing purple,” read a blog post on the official White House website. “October 20th is Spirit Day — a celebration begun one year ago by a teenager named Brittany McMillan to honor the memory of young people who have taken their lives after being bullied. It has become a day when people all over the world wear purple to show support for LGBT people and speak out against the bullying of LGBT teens.”
“In 2010, millions participated,” the post continued. “This year, the White House is going purple on Facebook, as well. You can also join the celebration by making your social networking icon purple, or just adding a statetment of support. And October 20th is also a day to remember that it does get better.”
Celebrities and companies wore purple in support of LGBT youth and taking a stand against bullying.
Several on-air personalities wore purple, including DeGeneres, The View and The Talk co-hosts, Wendy Williams with guest Tyra Banks, MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts and anchors from The Weather Channel, Good Morning America and CNBC.
In the late night space, Conan O’Brien and Craig Ferguson will also wear purple on their respective talk shows. Modern Family star Jesse Tyler Ferguson, a scheduled guest on TBS’ Conan, tweeted that he would also wear purple for his appearance.
Television networks MTV, MTV2, The Sundance Channel and Logo also changed their logos on the air, making them purple. The CW and the NBA changed their icons on Twitter in support of Spirit Day as well.
Ricki Lake tweeted a photo of herself wearing a purple bathing suit, while actress Goldie Hawn wrote, “Wear purple for #SpiritDay to support gay youth & stand against bullying: http://glaad.org/spiritday No child should be bullied!” Joan Rivers wrote, “Today is Spirit Day, so wear your PURPLE!” Banks, Fran Drescher, Glee actor Harry Shum Jr. and Jersey Shore‘s Vinny Guardagnino and DJ Pauly D also tweeted their support on Thursday.
Former American Idol contestant Adam Lambert wrote in support of Spirit Day, “Glaad Spirit Day! I support LBGT youth against bullies! Put up your forcefields and don’t let anyone take your energy!!”
Additional participants include Parks & Recreation actor Aziz Ansari, Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush, Margaret Cho, Bravo’s Andy Cohen, Whitney’s Chris D’Elia, Mia Farrow, Gloria Allred, Chaz Bono, The Biggest Loser‘s Bob Harper, The Secret Circle actor Gale Harold, Heather Graham, Sean Hayes, Top Chef‘s Padma Lakshmi, Sean Maher, Ricky Martin, Switched at Birth‘s Katie Leclerc, Mary Murphy, Joel McHale and Julianne Moore.
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