ReconcilingWorks

Faith organizations, leaders, and have been getting into the spirit of Spirit Day 2016! Youth ministries, camps, congregations, campus ministries, advocacy organizations, and whole denominations have gone purple today. These organizations are standing in solidary with LGBTQ youth and against bullying.

New Ways Ministry, an LGBTQ Catholic organization, has been reaching out to Catholic schools, and created Catholic school specific banners for students to share on social media. This display of solidarity in religious based schools is especially important for LGBTQ students and/or faculty who may feel alienated by some religious teachings.

Other groups have turned their social media purple, and have asked their congregations to go purple too!

Hey @glaad, we here at The Crossing campus ministry @ #UWMadison are going purple for #SpiritDay!

— The Crossing (@thecrossing_uw) October 15, 2014

Calling on Christians to go purple for #SpiritDay pic.twitter.com/tobElA9Dah

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; The Naming Project (@namingproject) October 18, 2016

Go purple now to take a stand against bullying, and support LGBTQ youth for #SpiritDay! @glaad t.co/sDLYMDWjn6 pic.twitter.com/mnlNxPdl0X

— Trey Pearson (@treypearson) October 19, 2016

Today is #SpiritDay and we think it’s time for The #UMC to stop bullying #LGBTQ people – especially our youth! pic.twitter.com/1c2F6M1mEk

— RMNetwork (@rmnetwork) October 20, 2016

About Spirit Day

Each year, millions of people “go purple” for Spirit Day in a united stand against bullying and to show support for LGBTQ youth. According to a 2015 GLSEN survey, more than half of LGBTQ students report being victimized based on sexual orientation, with a further three quarters of students who report hearing anti-LGBTQ remarks in school. Started in 2010 by high school student Brittany McMillan, Spirit Day now draws the participation of celebrities, corporations, media outlets, sports leagues, schools, faith institutions, national landmarks, and individuals around the world, who join together in a united stand against bullying.

Check out glaad.org/spiritday for more about how to stand against bullying and show support for LGBTQ youth. Also follow @GLAAD on Twitter to keep up to date with #spiritday news.

Spirit Day is made possible by the generous support of its presenting partners Target and Wells Fargo, official partners, NBA and WNBA, NFL, Viacom, and WWE, and supporting partners, American Eagle Outfitters, Barilla, Comcast NBCUniversal, Kellogg’s, Kirkland & Ellis, Toyota Financial Services, and Zipcar. The translation of GLAAD’s Spirit Day Resource Kit into multiple languages is made possible by a generous grant from Google supporting GLAAD’s Global Voices Initiative. Global Spirit Day resource kits are presented by Logo’s Global Ally campaign.

Past participants in Spirit Day include the White House, the Empire State Building, Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Cher, Laverne Cox, Kim Kardashian, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Shaquille O’Neal, Good Morning America, The Today Show, The View, The Talk, The Tonight Show, MTV, the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, WWE, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, the Las Vegas Strip, and more.