Times Square, Stock Exchange to turn purple for LGBT Spirit Day

The lights of Times Square and the New York Stock Exchange will turn purple on Oct. 19 for Spirit Day, the annual observance celebrating LGBT youth and equality.

The Thomson Reuters screen also will be in purple lights and certain Facebook pages, as well as sites for the NBA, WNBA and Major League Soccer will be purple, according to the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

GLAAD is organizing participation in Spirit Day through glaad.org/spiritday and on a Go Purple app produced in partnership with Toyota Financial Services.

The nonprofit says hundreds of celebrities, corporations, news outlets and schools are participating in an event that involves millions of people in the United States.

Toyota’s Ann Bybee said, “Going purple for the day is a small but powerful way we can all show our support for those who have been bullied or who fear being bullied. It is so important to raise awareness that bullying isn’t acceptable.”

Each day leading up to Spirit Day, GLAAD is asking people to take “one simple action they can take daily to combat bullying.”

The list of Spirit Day participants includes:

George Takei, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, star of ABC Family’s “Pretty Little Liars” Shay Mitchell, daytime talk show host Wendy Williams, Nickelodeon’s Avan Jogia, the Los Angeles Unified School District, AMC Entertainment, AT&T, atelier-lb, Caesars Foundation, Carat, Citi, Delta Air Lines, Draftfcb, Digitas, Facebook, WNBA, NBA, MLS, Hewlett-Packard Company, Johnnye’s East Texas Soul, LBNY, Leo Burnett Business, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Marquee Las Vegas, MediaVest, Omnicom Group, Publicis Kaplan Thaler, Publicis Groupe, Saatchi & Saatchi, Southern California Edison, Toyota Financial Services, Warner Bros., Yahoo! and Zenith Optimedia.

Other landmarks to turn purple on Spirit Day include the LAX Pylon Lights and the JFK traffic tower.

Participating groups include the BULLY Project; Campus Pride; CenterLink; Equality Texas; Fair Wisconsin; FriendFactor; Forum for Equality; the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network; GSA Network; Human Rights Campaign; the League of United Latin American Citizens; the National Bullying Prevention Center by PACER; the National Council of La Raza; the National Hispanic Media Coalition; Parents, Family and Friends of Lesbians and Gays; Reaching Out MBA; Straight But Not Narrow; The Trevor Project; and Youth Empowered to Act.

For more, go to glaad.org/spiritday.