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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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In Charlotte,North Carolina, Time Out Youth wanted to rent 5 billboards for $6,200 in grant and gift $$$$ that would have the slogan "It's OK to be gay". Here's why they can't:
*The slogan is too direct.
*Consumers don't have the choice of turning a page or flipping a channel.
*A lot of parents genuinely feel children and teens should not be around anything affirming to be gay, so (kids) won't choose to be that way.
When will they ever learn that we don't choose it, it chooses us. I didn't choose to live inside my head all my teenage years waiting for what will probably be a struggle to be proud of myself. I didn't choose to be different. I didn't choose to live a lie. I sure didn't choose to watch how everyone around me treats anyone "different" and know that they'd do the same to me.
I don't know if these billboards are flaunting stuff in their str8 faces or what. I realize 'they' want to just change the channel or flip the page when anything other than what 'they' believe in is right in front of them but dang!
The group wanted to put up the billboards in response to the lack of local support from schools, churches and the medical community for gay teens.
There was a story my Grandmom used to read to me when I was little called "Dust Under the Rug" where the lady kept sweeping the dust under the rug instead of shaking the rug everyday. So many kids today: gay, black, hispanic, poor, neglected, throwaway, abused are like dust under the rug.
I talk about this alot with a good friend on-line and we wonder why these people never look beyond the "label" into the hearts of the people they choose to condemn. I can't tell my parents; he can't tell his. I'm ashamed that I can't but they love me right now and that would be taken away.
Have you ever wondered why people are so afraid that their teenage kids would "choose" to be gay? Have they ever wondered at all what would be lacking in their family that their child would "choose" to live outside their faith? Outside their form of right and wrong? When you look at it from our side, it's all so stupid. Gay to me is just loving who you love........If that's wrong then I guess they can just flip the channel. I'll even hand them the remote.......
Sorry for the major rant
{{{hugs}}}
smith
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You are so right smith... Im sorry the world is so wrong... Someday people will learn, who knows if we will ever have a chance to see it htough. It's good to know at least that people are trying to change the view of the world.. I am sad that people cannot understand. I'm sad that people still think we choose to be gay, just to be diffrent, or to get attention. They are so wrong. One day they will see. *Hugs smith tight*
Peace and Trees
~Andy
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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I was the generation that was that dust
My mother said "We knew OF homosexual people, dear. But they were actors"
I know it all too well.
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
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Guest
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On fire! |
Registered: March 2012
Messages: 2344
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No Message Body
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I have nothing further to add. You said it all.
{{{hugs}}}
-L
"But he that hath the steerage of my course,
direct my sail."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act One, Scene IV
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trevor
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Really getting into it |
Registered: November 2002
Messages: 732
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Just curious - WHO said they can't, do you know? I think they can still advertise alchohol and tobacco on billboards (not the same thing at all) but their arguments don't hold water there.
Suppose one could post bills (where legal) and use other free speech. Bumper stickers?
I was disappointed that it appears (from their web sites) that even in what I consider a fairly progressive town, my local high schools don't appear to have GSA's.
I can't help but keep coming back to WWJD with regard to treatment of gays? I mean, seriously? Hypocrisy is alive and well - sigh.
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Well, agreed, for a billboard it wouldn't be as easy as for the radio or TV.... But there are still always options.
One could just avoid looking....
As for GSA's.... They just don't appear.... A student must begin the movement to start up a local chapter.... That takes alot of nerve in most cases.... Much like being the odd duck out, kids begining GSA's are odd, out, and canvassing for more.
Not an easy place for a teen....
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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smith
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On fire! |
Registered: January 1970
Messages: 1095
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Charlotte's largest outdoor advertising firm. In 2001, this company rented the group 5 billboards around the city for a month that featured 4 teenagers and the slogan "We are your gay youth" and the group's website.
Company officials said the slogan this time is too direct. "Because it's targeted to kids, this could be very, very offensive to parents of those children. It's a message that sounds encouraging."
Encouraging????
It's almost funny, they make it sound like if I was on that billboard leanin' on my surfboard saying, 'Wheeeee, come be gay with me...it's one long rippin' party'.
"We are your gay youth" doesn't offend I guess because no one has to deal with it and they can just say 'So what?' but "It's OK to be gay" means they have to think and agree or disagree and maybe even deal.
stupid people {grumble grumble)
JJ
ps.....Trevor ~ WWJD? I have to hope he'd cry then go talk to his dad.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Interesting, this WWJD stuff.
A guy, unmarried, surrounded by a dozen hunky guys does not sound like your classice heterosexual male to me.
So, what would a man in the predominately jewish and Roman governed part of the world do? He'd look at his culture and history and decide either to agree or overturn the applecart.
Doesn't matter who his dad was.
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
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I agree with with your 'rant', smith. This so-called judeo-christian society that has evolved here is anything but. The universal message of love we were taught in Sunday School while growing up only applies to those who think and act the same as the idealized image driven into our subconsciouses but the narrowed minded few who now control this country.
But a light is shining on the horizon. In the past eight weeks the Texas sodomy law was ruled unconstitutional, an openly gay bishop was elected, the New York City school system recognized that gay youths do exist and need protection from main stream bigots, Canada is moving towards official recognition of homosexual marriage, and a few states have measures pending granting more rights and priviliges to same-sex couples. I will admit that the light could be much brighter but at least it is getting stronger, not weaker.
The stigma of homosexuality is the biggest single roadblock in this eventual progression. Until more gay and lesbian next-door neighbors shed the light of normalcy and inevitability on the minds of our elected leaders these instances of 'repression' will continue. Even forty years after the civil rights movement pushed the second emancipation upon the general population signs of bias and prejudice still grab the lime light.
So I guess what I am trying to say is: it sucks now, it will suck for a while longer, but times are getting better. It doesn't look like it, or seems to be moving at a snail's pace, and doesn't help right now. But smith, I see a day not to long from now when your voice, and many others, will be heard and accepted. All we can do now is keep on truckin' with our hammers and chisels.
Hugs, Charlie
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marc
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Needs to get a life! |
Registered: March 2003
Messages: 4729
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Maybe I read your first posting too quickly... Maybe the information was incomplete... Oh well...
I thought the decision came from the local governmental authorities......
As a decision reguarding the wellbeing of ones business I believe there is no fault in protecting ones livlihood and those of who knows how many employees. I am gay and activly so but I would not put my business on the line either, just to make someone elses point.
Life is great for me... Most of the time... But then I meet people online... Very few are real friends... Many say they are but know nothing of what it means... Some say they are, but are so shallow...
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Dust Under the Rug 
Re: Dust Under the Rug 
Was a good rant, smith. 
the billboard company 
