WATCH: TV Goes Purple for Spirit Day

America's television viewers saw every shade of purple under the sun Thursday, as the nation's broadcast and cable television anchors donned purple ties, skirts, tops, dresses, and even coats to show their support LGBT youth on Spirit Day.

The staff of Good Morning America, the hosts of The View, and many others, including MSNBC's Thomas Roberts, wore purple, and Roberts hosted a live Twitter chat with GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis.

GLAAD is the originator and organizer of Spirit Day, first observed in 2010, after a string of widely publicized suicides by LGBT youth. The purpose of Spirit Day is to take a stand against anti-LGBT bullying and support young people. It is now marked every year on the third Thursday in October, during National Bullying Prevention Month. Millions of teachers, businesses, celebrities, media outlets, and students take part by "going purple" on social media, and wearing purple.

Business network CNBC, which has partnered with GLAAD since the inception of Spirit Day, once again turned the NBC peacock logo purple as a show of support for the cause, and hosts on its various shows wore purple too. Other networks that are part of NBC Universal joined in, along with many local affiliates. On MSNBC, out anchor Roberts not only did the live chat but discussed Spirit Day on his Way Too Early program, and First Look's Betty Nguyen talked with GLAAD spokesman Omar Sharif Jr.

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Stars of entertainment TV participated as well. The cast of The Fosters, an ABC Family show about a lesbian couple raising a blended family, jumped in a day early, with this tweet Wednesday, then followed up with more:

Also, the cast of BBC America's Orphan Black recorded a Spirit Day video. Watch that below, then a video of Roberts's Spirit Day report, and see his archived Twitter chat here. And TV Newser has a look at various news anchors and TV hosts' purple choices here.

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