An Ohio LGBT activist was so offended by an anti-gay billboard posted in his town, he and some friends crowdsourced a pro-marriage equality billboard of their own.
Earlier this month Tom Morgan got a phone call from a friend who was watching a billboard being put up near Columbus, Ohio. “Holy matrimony is one man and one woman,” the black on white words read. Next to them, two gold wedding bands.
No one took responsibility for the anti-gay billboard, and the company that owns it refused to disclose who paid for it, or if they posted the message themselves.
Morgan drove out to the site to take a look. He was furious. And he decided to do something.
Well-connected to the LGBT community in Ohio, Morgan arranged a protest under the “Holy matrimony is one man and one woman” billboard. He got the attention of the local and national media, including The New Civil Rights Movement.
And then he and his friends took another step, deciding to erect a billboard of their own.
With the help of the Internet, the friends raised $3900 in just a few days via a GoFundMe page.Â
And today, a beautiful brightly-colored billboard sits just north of Columbus, where an estimated 90,000 people will drive by.
It reads, “Marriage Equality! Love Will Win!,” and has the photo of a same-sex couple, Valerie Mailman and Shannon Piper, and their daughters.
Morgan told The New Civil Rights Movement via phone today that he’s “very proud,” and wanted everyone to know that this was a true grassroots effort — no equality organization had a hand in it. It was “just a group of friends.”
“We rallied together and said let’s do a billboard too,” and they did.
The billboard on Dublin Road will stay up for a few weeks, through October 5. Morgan and his friends are planning to erect another one when the first one comes down, hopefully in an even more-trafficked location. That one would cost $5000.
He say people like Rep. Michele Bachmann are able to drop an anti-gay comment, which often leads to a family conversation that denigrates LGBT people. He hopes his billboard will be seen by some of those families who have closeted children who need support. “We’ve got to provide that,” Morgan insists.
Morgan and his band of friends include Stephen Snyder-Hill, and his husband, Joshua Snyder-Hill. Stephen is the Army veteran who was booed during a Republican presidential debate in 2011. Hill has a new book just released earlier this month: Soldier of Change: From the Closet to the Forefront of the Gay Rights Movement.
The group of friends will be hosting a rally next Wednesday, the 24th, at 6:00 PM to celebrate the billboard.
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Image via Facebook