YouTube launched its celebrity-filled 2014 Gay Pride campaign, #ProudToPlay, on June 3 to coincide with Pride Month, anchoring its efforts around sportsand it immediately received immense support, with an eye-popping tally of views for its original two-minute video, featuring LGBT athletes and allies.
The videofeaturing out athletes Jason Collins, Michael Sam, Tom Daley and others, plus allies such as Kobe Bryantwas viewed more than 3.2 million times in less than 48 hours.
"This is huge. It's a powerful statement by the top two trafficked Web sites in the world, [YouTube and its parent company, Google], and continues to build momentum for 2014 as the year of the gay athlete," said Cyd Zeigler of Outsports.com . "Last year, [YouTube] made 'love' the theme of their Pride efforts. This year, it's sports. That says a lot about where LGBT sports issues are in our mainstream culture, and the role sports now play in the LGBT community."
"This is an important video not just because it highlights the emergence of gay athletes across multiple sports over the last few years, but because it shows the future of sports, where all athletes are proud to play whether they are gay or straight," said Brian Kupersmit, president of the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association ( CMSA ). "June is Pride Month where we celebrate ourselves and hopefully educate others. More than 3.2 million people have watched this video so far and I hope they have learned something, mainly that gay athletes are here to stay and we are Proud to Play."
YouTube, in announcing the video, said it is #ProudToPlay: Celebrating equality for all athletes.
"From the Sochi Olympics to the recent NFL draft, this year has seen a growing, global conversation about the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT ) community in the world of sports," a YouTube statement said. "Many LGBT athletes are sharing their stories on YouTube, and the support they're getting from teammates and fans has helped others find the courage to do the same.
"Sports bring together people from all backgrounds and experiences through a shared passion, and YouTube shares that spirit of connecting diverse communities to make a difference. In celebration of the upcoming World Cup in Brazil and LGBT Pride month, we're honoring the LGBT athletes, their supporters, as well as the YouTube Creators who stand up for diversity in sports and elsewhere-all of whom help create an equal and inclusive playing field for everyone."
Raymond Braun, YouTube Marketing manager and the campaign lead, said in a phone interview June 4 that YouTube is "really excited and thrilled with how the community has responded to #ProudToPlay."
"We've seen that 2014 has really been a big year for sports, with the Sochi Olympics, the [World Cup] in Brazil, and more, plus a string of celebrity role-model athletes who are coming out and sharing their stories. The goal of #ProudToPlay was to build on the legacy of #ProudToLove from last year and amplifying those voices and those conversations to promote equality in sports."
The video took about two months to produce.
"It's a message that everyone can get behind because it's about promoting equality and saying that it doesn't matter who you love, what background you come from … it just matters what you do on the field, on the pitch, [or] on the court. And that's a message that resonates with all of the athletes [in the video], whether LGBT or not," Braun said.
YouTube's #ProudToLove campaign launched at the end of June 2013, yet the #ProudToPlay campaign is month-long. And Braun said future similar campaigns are likely.
"Working on this [campaign] made me really encouraged and hopeful about the future," said Braun, 24, who is openly gay and based in London. "We thought there was a great, diverse roster of allies and LGBT athletes," in the video.
Not to mention President Obama, and it opens with a sports-driven message from the late Nelson Mandelaall set around the upbeat rhythm from Katy Perry's song "Roar."
Braun said they were "thrilled" to include Bryant's support in the video.
"When we communicated the campaign message [internally], so many people contacted me, asking if they could volunteer, if they could lend their expertise," Braun said. "One of the most inspiring things about this video is, it inspires conversation.
"I've gotten a lot of stories from LGBT youth who might live in an area without a lot of LGBT role models, so, for them, YouTube is the refuge where they can go and find this really rich, diverse range of content that's made for and specifically targeted for LGBT people. It gives them hope, inspiration, a positive vision for what their future can look like, a way for them to identify and connect.
"As a gay man, I now think about how incredibly valuable that could have been as a youth."
Anthony Nicodemo, an out high school basketball coach in New York, said, "I think the multimedia campaign is a great way to reach a large amount of student-athletes and let them know that they can be gay and successful in sports."
Collins, who plays for the NBA's Brooklyn Nets, said in a statement, "Proud to play means to me someone who is proud of all the things that makes them who they are, whether it be your race or religion or sexual orientation, heck, your height. It's important to be proud of who you are. As a professional athlete, we accept that we are role models. It's great that regardless of your sexual orientation, that the conversation was started and people started talking about being gay in professional sports. If you're straight, just continue to be supportive. And if you see someone being bullied, or hear language that's inappropriate, speak up and speak out. It's very important to have those allies out there who are being brave for some of us who aren't yet ready to be brave on our own."
Bryant said in a statement, "Equality in sports has to be there for your team to be successful. It's these little building blocks that you learn through playing sports. The bravery of being yourself is really the anchor of it all. You have to be brave in your own convictions, you have to be brave about who you are and you have to be brave to step forward and step into the spotlight and declare to the rest of the world this is who I am."