Georgia Equality, I Protect You and I am Gay

Lamar Advertising, the nation’s third-largest outdoor advertising company, refused to sell billboard space for the second phase of Georgia Equality’s campaign.
James Locke, vice president/general manager for Lamar Advertising South Georgia, sent a note to Georgia Equality saying, “We’re going to have to decline this business.”

Locke told Morris News Service, “We just didn’t feel the copy was right for those markets. These are the markets we do business in, and I know the community standards of these markets.”

Baton Rouge, LA-based Lamar has gotten into trouble with gay messages before.

Last year, Lamar signs carried an anti-gay message in Asheville, NC, featuring a Bible passage from Leviticus often used against gays by fundamentalists, which read: "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be put upon them." However, the signs were unauthorized and the employee responsible for allowing them was fired, according to the Baltimore Sun.

In January 2004, Lamar rejected a message in Albany, NY submitted by a man who works for the anti-gay American Family Association. Picturing himself, the copy read, "Wonderful Husband. Loving Father. Former Homosexual. Jesus Christ Changes Lives."

Using another company, Clear Channel, Georgia Equality has already run teaser billboards across metro Atlanta featuring teachers and firefighters with slogans like “I teach your children,” and “I protect you.” A few weeks later, an addition was added in each case that said “and… I am gay.”

Steven Conner, a spokesperson for Clear Channel, told Express Gay News that he hasn’t received any calls about the Georgia Equality billboards.