Emerge is Viacom’s LGBT Employee Resource Group.
Today, Viacom is proudly showing its spirit of diversity and inclusion by stepping up in a significant way to participate in GLAAD’s Spirit Day, the largest and most visible anti-bullying campaign in the world that supports LGBT youth.
In New York City, Viacom spread the call to end anti-LGBT bullying both inside and out. Viacom’s electronic billboards in Times Square displayed a Spirit Day anti-bullying message throughout the day. Additionally, Laverne Cox and transgender youth featured in the upcoming MTV and Logo TV documentary “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word” lit the Empire State Building purple with GLAAD.
Inside Viacom’s Times Square building, pioneering LGBT advocates Edie Windsor and Roberta Kaplan, the wining plaintiff and attorney team in the case that effectively struck down DOMA, took part in MTV’s Pioneers Speakers series, hosted by MTV and Logo TV President Stephen Friedman. Emerge, Viacom’s LGBT ERG (Employee Resource Group) also hosted an advance screening of “Laverne Cox Presents: The T Word.”
Employees in Miami and Los Angeles showed their spirit as well by engaging their employees on the issue. Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles hosted an event in honor Spirit Day at Helen Bernstein High School, in which Paramount staff shared their experiences growing up part of the LGBT community and what their lives are like now. The Miami office held a Spirit Day event complete with Spirit Day ice cream treats and a special screening of “It Gets Better 2.”
Viacom’s brands each took on Spirit Day and amplified it to their audiences in their own unique way. The cast of MTV’s “Faking It” debuted a Spirit Day video on MTV Act earlier in the week, speaking out against bullying. Hosts from VH1’s “Big Morning Buzz Live” and “Gossip Table” and BET’s “106 & Park” wore purple in solidarity of the day. Throughout the day, Logo TV aired commercials encouraging Spirit Day participation and featured pictures from the New Orleans-based LGBT youth organization BreakOUT. MTV and Logo TV also aired documentaries about coming out, marriage equality and the documentaries “It Gets Better” and “It Gets Better 2.”
Finally, MTV and its channels, VH1, Comedy Central, Logo TV, BET, CMT and Tr3s went purple online and on air in a stand against bullying.
Take the Spirit Day pledge today and check out glaad.org/spiritday for more about how to stand against anti-LGBT bullying.
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