Pride Month 2020 at ViacomCBS
Jun 24, 2020
Brands across the company are celebrating diverse audiences and talent through special programming, virtual events, and support of social causes.
This year, Pride Month won’t include many parades, but it will have virtual events, socially distanced celebrations, and social media campaigns to raise awareness and support.
At ViacomCBS, Pride Month is a chance to recommit to celebrating diverse voices and characters through its programming. From VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race and SHOWTIME’s The L Word: Generation Q to Nickelodeon’s The Loud House and CBS All Access’ Star Trek: Discovery, ViacomCBS is dedicated to sharing stories of LGBTQ+ characters and talent.
Beyond its content, the company’s Office of Global Inclusion (OGI) sponsors CBS Pride and Emerge, which are internal employee resource groups focused on issues important to the LGBTQ+ community. And, Viacom and CBS both signed an amicus brief last year (prior to the ViacomCBS merger) in support of recognizing that LGBTQ+ employees are protected under federal civil rights laws against employment discrimination, which the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in a landmark decision earlier this month.
For more about how ViacomCBS is honoring LGBTQ+ communities and their allies, here’s a look at Pride Month activations across the ViacomCBS portfolio:
BET International will run BET Breaks: Pride Special interstitials to empower LGBTQ+ communities on-air and across social media. A series of digital-only BET Pride Home Sessions will feature interviews between BET Breaks presenters and influential members of the LGBTQ+ community. The "12 Days of Pride" digital campaign will spotlight black creatives focusing on topics ranging from identity to activism to family.
CBS Television Stations Group broadcast a series of "Pride Gives Back" spots in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco emphasizing the imperative to help LGBTQ+ small businesses that have been upset by COVID-19 shutdowns.
CMT will be presenting partner for the annual Concert For Love and Acceptance on June 30. Kristin Chenoweth and CMT talent Cody Alan will co-host the show, which will feature performances by country artists and celebrities determined to accelerate acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community.
Comedy Central International will premiere season 2 of drag queen advice-comedy Dragony Aunts across digital platforms on June 29. Spinoff Dragony Aunts: The Podcast will debut in August.
Comedy Central Latin America will spotlight LGBTQ+ comedians and specials.
Logo is the exclusive streaming partner for Pride Live’s third annual Stonewall Day. The event runs on Logo’s Youtube and Facebook pages, and includes special messages to the LGBTQ+ community from President Barack Obama. Other guests and performers include Taylor Swift, Ellen DeGeneres, Cynthia Erivo, Kesha, Hayley Kiyoko, Demi Lovato, Katy Perry, Christian Siriano, George Takei, Donatella Versace, Lilly Wachowski, Sir Richard Branson, and others.
MTV’s +1 the Vote and Logo have joined forces with the non-profit organization Trans Lifeline to create a new youth micro-grant program that will support more than 250 individuals in changing their legal name and updating their government ID documents to reflect their gender identity so they can vote and participate in our democracy.
To showcase the importance of voter access for the LGBTQIA community, MTV and Logo will release a short video later this month that documents the journey of three transgender and non-binary young people as they reflect on the experiences of updating their government IDs.
MTV International’s Served! With Jade Thirlwall, a cooking competition featuring celebrity drag queens, will premiere on television on June 29, following its digital debut last month.
MTV Latin America is airing LGBTQ+-themed programming and music blocks.
MTV UK set up an MTV Pride pop-up channel, which will air a Pride countdown special and Pride-themed marathons, including Adam Lambert’s Fierce Pride Anthems, Years & Years’ Pop Party Mixtape, RuPaul’s Lip-Sync Extravaganza, and Alaska’s Anthems.
Nickelodeon put together a video history of the LGBTQ+ flag that will air on its networks and social channels, and will celebrate some of its most well-known bisexual characters (The Loud House’s Luna Loud, Legend of Korra’s Avatar Korra), and trans actor Michael D. Cohen (Henry Danger/Danger Force’s Schwoz). The network also collaborated with Funko Pop on SpongeBob Pride figurines.
Pluto TV is airing LGBTQ+ comedies and documentaries every Friday night in June, and will stream related programming from Fuse.
SHOWTIME made the first seasons of The L Word, The L Word: Generation Q, and Work In Progress available on YouTube for free, and talent from the latter two shows participated in the Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Virtual Pride Summit. The network is also sponsoring Frameline, the international LGBTQ film festival in San Francisco, where the SHOWTIME drama series The Chi will screen as an official selection.
Simon & Schuster is highlighting LGBTQ+ titles, including Jackson Bird’s Sorted; Jennifer Weiner’s Mrs. Everything; Philippe Besson’s Lie With Me; Tanya Boteju’s Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens; Karamo Brown’s Karamo; Saeed Jones’ How We Fight For Our Lives; Max Gladstone’s This Is How You Lose the Time War; and James Gregor’s Going Dutch.
ViacomCBS’ Supplier Diversity Program matched a portion of revenue from tracked meals purchased on UberEats from ViacomCBS’ June 18 Virtual Day of Service to support local restaurants and businesses that are part of its Supplier Diversity Council. OGI will also host a panel for employees with LightHouse discussing how LGBTQ+ youth integrate into the professional world, as well as a virtual conversation featuring Jonica T. Gibbs, Isis King, Brandon Kyle Goodman, and moderator Julian J. Walker around intersectionality, voting rights, and protecting freedoms within the LGBTQ+ community.
