On Wednesday, Wear Purple and Say No to Hate

by Allison Hope · 2010-10-18 06:09:00 UTC
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Tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands of people will be donning purple this coming Wednesday to honor those young lives that have been taken prematurely due to hate. October 20 has been designated Spirit Day, a day in which the color purple will be worn as a reminder of the string of recent young, gay suicides.

The idea was started by Canadian teenager Brittany McMillan, and has quickly grown into a movement that has spread across Canada, the United States and beyond. Purple is the LGBTQ color of spirit, Brittany said on her Tumblr account, where she first spread the news of the day. "And that's exactly what we'd like all of you to have with you: spirit."

"Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who love and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality,"  McMillan says on her site.

A Facebook group that came together to honor Tyler Clementi, the young man who jumped off the George Washington Bridge because he had been taunted for being gay, created a page devoted to Spirit Day. "On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the LGBT youth who have committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes and schools," the Facebook page reads.

The page now has more than 41,000 people who replied to the invite to say that they are participating. Hopefully that means we'll be seeing a fair amount of purple across small towns and big cities alike this Wednesday.

Purple is the color of honor and, as McMillan mentioned, the color of spirituality. Purple is a binary color that you get by mixing two primary colors, an apt analogy for a movement that celebrates diversity and, at this significant juncture, demands equal treatment, respect, and safety. May the purple, and all of the other colors of the rainbow, shine brightly this Wednesday, and every day moving forward.

Photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography

Allison Hope is a writer and multimedia artist living in New York City.
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