On Friday, Nov. 11, which marks National Coming Out Day, and in advance of Spirit Day on Thursday, Nov. 17, GLAAD released videos of LGBTQ celebrities and allies sending messages of support to LGBTQ youth.
The celebrities featured in the videos include: Angelica Ross, Jameela Jamil, Adam Rippon, Karamo Brown, Paula Abdul, Patricia Arquette, Dan Levy, Jaboukie Young-White, Peppermint, and Nina West. All of the participants offer their thoughts on bullying and the importance of tolerance, while also sending a message of acceptance to LGBTQ youth who may be struggling in school.
Each year on Spirit Day, millions of people in schools and workplaces around the world will wear purple or change their profile pictures or social media backgrounds to purple — the color within the rainbow Pride flag that signifies “spirit”– to show support for LGBTQ youth and take a stand against bullying. Corporations, media outlets, sports leagues, and other entities that support LGBTQ rights will also take part.
Started in 2010, Spirit Day came about after Brittany McMillan, then a high school sutdent, created a Tumblr post asking students to wear purple following the suicides of several LGBTQ and LGBTQ-perceived young people. The event coincides with National Bullying Prevention Month, with the donning of purple shirts by supportive allies serving as a demonstration of support for LGBTQ youth who may feel alienated due their sexual orientation or gender identity.
In 2018 alone, Spirit Day, and its corresponding hashtag #SpiritDay, sparked over 150 unique press stories, more than 100,000 unique mentions on social media, and earned over 1.6 billion social media impressions.
In one of the videos, Angelica Ross, an actress best known for her role in the FX series Pose, called on those who consider themselves allies to take more concrete actions in support of the LGBTQ community, particularly trans community members under attack.
“We all need to take a stand against all forms of bullying,” Ross says. “But we have to go beyond just turning our profile pictures purple. Because I see a lot of folks out there giving us lip service, and you think you’re doing everything by turning your profile picture purple, but then when we need you the most, when Trump is attacking trans Americans, you’re silent. Love is an action, and trans people need to see that love out in the open.”
“Bullies are acting out of fear and insecurity, and that’s an important thing to know if you are bullied, because it’s not about you, it is only about them,” says Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy in another video. “Keep shining, keep staying strong, and celebrate your life, because if someone is coming after you, it means you have something they don’t. You are special, you are loved. Keep going.”
The popular drag queen Peppermint tells youth in her video: “I want you to look inside yourself and just connect with that feeling, that individuality, that uniqueness, because it’s what’s going to make you a star.”
According to GLSEN’s most recent National School Climate Survey, 70% of LGBTQ students report being verbally harassed in school. Almost 60% of LGBTQ students say they feel unsafe because of their sexual orientation and nearly 45% feel unsafe because of their gender identity.
Additionally, more than 87% of LGBTQ students say they’ve experienced harassment or physical or sexual assault due to their personal characteristics, including sexual orientation, gender expression, gender, religion, actual or perceived race and ethnicity, and actual or perceived disability.
“From the world’s biggest stars and athletes to local classrooms and pastors, Spirit Day has become a megaphone for allies to send a unified message of acceptance and support to LGBTQ youth each year,” Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement. “In today’s divisive culture and political climate, LGBTQ people and allies need to be louder than ever to outshine bullies and tell young people that they will always be supported just as they are.”
Michael Shayan isn't himself the first time we meet, right before a performance of his solo show Avaaz at the Olney Theatre Center. Garbed in a gorgeous golden caftan, Shayan is, in that moment, wafting through the audience as Roya, Queen of Gays.
"The pre-show is so fun because I go around in character as my mother," Shayan says when we finally meet for a video chat about the one-person show, in which he portrays his larger-than-life Iranian-Jewish mom, Roya.
For the audience, that portrayal, in all its loving and scrutinizing detail, begins with the pre-show greeting. "I'm her, and I'm welcoming you into my home for this party," Shayan says. "That element has always been part of the show because I want it to feel like you're really being welcomed into a party. I want the play to feel like a party."
"There's nothing calculated about the way that I operate," Julio Torres told Metro Weekly in 2019 to discuss Los Espookys, the HBO comedy series, which the former Saturday Night Live writer created with co-stars Ana Fabrega and Fred Armisen. "I think we just do things the way that we know how and like to do them. And in my case, I feel like I don't know how to do it any other way."
Torres' singular comic voice and vision -- highly conceptual, sardonic yet heartfelt, and shaped by his experience as the queer Salvadoran immigrant son of an artist -- registers in all he does. The humorous threads connecting his signature SNL sketches, live standup, and Los Espookys are unmistakable in his new film Problemista, Torres' feature filmmaking debut.
Katy O'Brian has frozen mid-sentence, her warm expression fixed in time. It's the second time during a 45-minute Zoom call that technology has glitched.
"I don't know what's going on with my internet," she apologizes, returning to the call moments later. "It's crazy."
What is especially crazy is how Katy O'Brian's career has blown up over the past few years. From a stint in Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania as take-no-crap rebel Jentorra, to The Mandalorian, as comms officer Elia Kane, to her latest stint as Jackie, an aspiring bodybuilder who falls in love with Kristen Stewart's Lou in the vibrant, thrilling Love Lies Bleeding, O'Brian is leaving no corner of the cinematic cultural landscape unexplored. Later this summer, she'll be seen in the eagerly anticipated Twisters in a role designed for comic relief, she hints.
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