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A bold billboard campaign

9-26-04

News & Record editorial

“We are your neighbors,” proclaims’ a series of billboards that will pop up around the Triad next month, “and we are gay.”

These bold but understated billboards are a gentle reminder that gay people are just like everyone else and want to be seen that way.

The campaign, dubbed “abOUT Face,” is a project of the Triad Equality Alliance, which works for greater acceptance of the area’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered residents. The appearance of these messages is timed to overlap with National Coming Out Day on Oct; 11, when gays and lesbians are encouraged to talk about their lives with their families and friends.

The seven billboards feature faces familiar to some. For instance, Bob Page, the owner of Replacements Ltd., appears on one with his partner and their two children. Yet most of those pictured are not so familiar, which is the point. The billboards show men and womenwith their partners, their children and their families. They are a subtle rerninder that gays and lesbians are our neighbors, the people we run into, at the grocery store and yard sales, and the folks we wave to as we drive down the street.

The alliance’s co-chairman, Judith Kobler, said it’s no accident that the billboards feature just plain folks. The campaign hopes to counter the popular perception that gays and lesbians are somehow more masculine, more feminine or more flamboyant than everyone else.

Not everyone will look favorably on this outdoor advertising campaign. Some people will condemn it as a promotion of homosexuality or a political agenda. Though the legality of same-sex marriage is a hot social topic right now, the. billboards make no overt statement about this or any other issue. The alliance hopes to provoke civil, informed and thoughtful dialogue.That’s how it should be.  A bold billboard campaign

The Triad Equality Alliance project hopes to change perceptions about gays and lesbian. The group also wants to start some constructive dialogue.

Editorials in these columns represent the consensus of the News & Record’s publisher and editorial board.

copyright © 2004 News & Record
reprinted with permission

 
 

Triad Equality Alliance ● P.O. Box 19842 Greensboro, NC 27419 ●  info@triadequality.org

Tea is part of EqualityNC Project,
a 501(c)(3) group.

website © 2004
by Triad Equality Alliance