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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > General Talk > TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence
icon13.gif TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence  [message #62051] Wed, 21 April 2010 18:51 Go to next message
Brody Levesque is currently offline  Brody Levesque

Really getting into it
Location: US/Canada
Registered: September 2009
Messages: 733



By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Apr 20 | Casper, Wyoming City Code Enforcement Supervisor Shelley LeClere told reporters that there was nothing the city could do to force a local man to remove an Anti-Gay message from a fence that borders a sidewalk taken by hundreds of pupils traveling between Roosevelt Senior High School and the local Casper Boys & Girls Club.
In an interview with Casper Star-Tribune city reporter Pete Nickeas, Chris Trumbull, the man who painted the sign said:

"They're not my words, they're the Lord's," referring to Leviticus 20:13 as inspiration for his sign. "I put it up because society is not looking at the truth."

The exact passage reads, "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."
Trumbull said there was no specific incident that prompted him to paint the sign, though he spoke of a general disappointment in society.

"I'm not doing it to be spiteful. Gay people are bashing themselves," Trumbull said. "My fence seems like the proper setting [to express an opinion]."

LeClere also said thatTrumbull was asked to remove his message, but he declined. Beyond asking, LeClere said, there was nothing the city could do. Trumbull's message, whether appropriate or not, is protected speech.

"We don't have an ordinance that prohibits you from having graffiti. If you get caught painting, that's one thing, but it doesn't preclude you from putting up your own message," she said. "It's freedom of speech. What is vulgar to one person is not to the other person."

Nickeas wrote that Roosevelt Principal Mike Pickett, who hadn't seen or heard of the sign before Friday morning, walked down the street to see it. About 50 yards from the fence, when it was plain to see, he paused before turning around and heading back toward the school.

"It's sad, but we have a Constitution ... The nice thing about our students is that they understand that everyone is different," he said. "The students haven't said anything."

Coincidentally, Friday was the annual National Day of Silence -- an event designed to call attention to name-calling, bullying and harassment of gay and lesbian students in schools, according to its organizers.
Though there were no district-level coordinated events to coincide with the national observation, Wood said he expected educators to use Trumbull's painting as an opportunity to teach.

"I'd use it as a big learning piece about free speech and constitutional rights," Wood said. "We live in a free country, so how do you handle disputes and differences of opinion?"

Casper City Ward 1 Councilman Keith Goodenough said he didn't think it was the city's place to "draw the line" unless the speech incited a riot. Trumbull's property is in his ward.

"As soon as you start limiting one thing, it inevitably leads to another and another, and I just think you have to rely on social pressure, peer pressure," he said.

Photo By Dan Cepeda Casper Star-Tribune
Re: TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence  [message #62053 is a reply to message #62051] Wed, 21 April 2010 18:56 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Does that mean, as a matter of free speech, one can paint "Chris Trumbull is a total cunt" on a fence one owns nearby?



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence  [message #62054 is a reply to message #62051] Wed, 21 April 2010 20:05 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nigel is currently offline  Nigel

On fire!
Location: England
Registered: November 2003
Messages: 1756



Isn't Wyoming the Equality State?

Hugs
N



I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.

…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
Re: TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence  [message #62062 is a reply to message #62054] Thu, 22 April 2010 18:44 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Benji is currently offline  Benji

Likes it here
Location: USA
Registered: August 2007
Messages: 297



In my hometown that would be considered graffiti, no matter what the message. Especially if facing the public right of way. I'm surprised it hasn't been tagged yet (Tagging is graffiti people at work).
Re: TO BE GAY=DEATH Message To Remain On Fence  [message #62080 is a reply to message #62062] Fri, 23 April 2010 08:56 Go to previous message
saben is currently offline  saben

On fire!

Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537



Is it graffiti if it's on your own fence, though?



Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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