Billboards Raising Eyebrows

By WMAZ-TV

LAURENS COUNTY, GA -- Signs are going up around the state of Georgia to raise awareness about gay and lesbian lifestyles.

They're raising eyebrows as well. The latest sign to go up is in Laurens County where people are starting to talk.

Controversy over the billboard comes one day after the Georgia Baptist Convention voted to sever ties with Mercer University, in part because of the colleges' support for a gay and lesbian student group.

"Georgia Equality" is putting up the billboards. Josh Mason helped design the concept, and is also a Mercer Law student.

The sign on Telfair Street in Dublin reads, "I sit next to you? And I am a lesbian." Just beneath those words it says, "We are your neighbors." The display shows a young woman standing against school lockers.

Mason says, "Some people are going to have a problem with them. But they're no different than any other billboards you see on the sides of the roads that are sponsored by companies about sex shops or adult entertainment."

Mason, a Georgia Equality member and student at Mercer Law School, says the signs are meant to stimulate discussions that could eventually change opinions.

James Graham says if that is the intent of the signs, it is not working. His business sits directly underneath the billboard.

"If people want to have a homosexual or gay and lesbian lifestyle that's their choice, but I don't think it needs to be pushed on everybody else."

Graham says that is the opinion he has heard from several people who have stopped in asking about the sign. He says for some it is an eye catcher.

But to other people, like his son, it is just another billboard on the side of the road. His son, Michael, says if he passed by the sign he would not give it a second thought.

Chairman of Georgia Equality, Chuck Bowen, says the ads will appear in rural areas, particularly in the southeastern corner of the state.

Bowen says his group surveyed people across the state last fall. He says he determined from the results the further people live from metropolitan areas, the lower their tolerance for gay and lesbian relationships.

Bowen says around 50 signs like the one in Laurens County will go up around the state. They each will stay up for one month.

Bowen says he plans to put the signs in other Central Georgia Counties, including Baldwin, Pulaski, Putnam, Johnson, Wilkinson, and Bleckley.

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