For some of us, the cold weather is here to stay. At least for a little while. And with cold weather, comes the "cold weather blues." In this episode of Simplified with Josh McBride, we give you some great ideas to stay sane and positive in these colder months.
Empire State Building
This Thursday, October 21st, marks the 12th annual Spirit Day!
Spirit Day is an annual day of awareness for the LGBTQ community. It is promoted by GLAAD, the world's largest LGBTQ organization. Spirit Day was founded by Brittany McMillan when she was just 15 years old. The first annual Spirit Day started when McMillan urged her peers to wear purple in support of LGBTQ youth. Since then, purple has become the symbolic color of Spirit Day. Now, in 2021, Spirit Day has been going strong for 12 years. In honor of the momentous occasion, the Empire State Building will go purple. According to a press release from GLAAD:
"RuPaul's Drag Race winner Symone and Official Sponsor of Spirit Day Sally Hansen will participate in a ceremonial lighting of the Empire State Building with GLAAD.
Symone is a beloved contestant of RuPaul's Drag Race, a fan favorite, and the winner of Season 13 of the hit reality competition series. Back in 2014, actress and transgender rights advocate Laverne Cox was the one to light the Empire State Building purple for Spirit Day. This time around, it will be Symone who does the honors.
According to the press release:
"Additional celebrities, advocates, media, landmarks, organizations, and more (are) set to participate in Spirit Day."
These celebrities include big names like Barbra Streisand, Precious Brady-Davis, and Dan Bucatinsky, to name a few. Rhe press release also stated:
"Presenting sponsors Target, Visible, and Wells Fargo, official sponsors Porsche Cars North America Inc., Sally Hansen, and Mars Wrigley's SKITTLES, and community sponsors Amazon, Kellogg Company, Kirkland & Ellis, National Basketball Association & Women's National Basketball Association, NFL, Nike, and Shutterfly will all participate in 2021 Spirit Day"
For more information on Spirit Day, visit glaad.org/spiritday.
#NetflixWalkout
On Wednesday, employees at Netflix organized a rally for Trans Rights.
The rally, or #NetflixWalkout, comes shortly after the release of Dave Chappelle's sixth comedy special to released by Netflix. The special, called The Closer, included some jokes that many found to be transphobic and offensive. As a result, Netflix employees took a stand in solidarity. Team Trans* put out a video on Wednesday morning in support of the #NetflixWalkout movement.
The video features messages from a number of celebrities who send their love and support to the group of rallying employees. Journalist and activist Ashlee Marie Preston is joined by Angelica Ross, Mason Alexander Park, Jameela Jamil, Colton Haynes, Peppermint, Sara Ramírez, Jonathan Van Ness, Our Lady J, and Kate Bornstein. Additionally, many other notable celebrities took to twitter to share their support for the #NetflixWalkout.
I stand with the trans, nonbinary, and BIPOC employees at Netflix fighting for more and better trans stories and a… https://t.co/M7v8YpVoYA— Elliot Page (@Elliot Page) 1634749587.0
Sending my love and full support to all trans employees and their allies participating in the #NetflixWalkout today… https://t.co/9Wi9odDtyD— billy eichner (@billy eichner)1634740251.0
#NetflixWalkout If you're not standing up for trans lives, you need to take a good look at who you ARE standing wit… https://t.co/lN6hgSe9ly— Lilly Wachowski (@Lilly Wachowski) 1634739401.0
