‘One Man One Woman’ Billboard Sparks Protest From Marriage Equality Activists

A large roadside billboard emblazoned with the anti-gay message, “Holy matrimony is one man and one woman” drew a fervent protest by Ohio marriage activists this weekend.

Despite threats of heavy rain, about 20 members and friends of GetEQUAL Ohio staged a protest Sunday under an anonymously sponsored billboard in Columbus. The group’s co-founder, Tom Morgan, learned of the billboard as it was being erected Thursday, and quickly formed the protest via Facebook. “We will not let this sort of thing stand without a RESPONSE!,” Morgan wrote. “We are NOT going after anyone’s statement of their ‘closely held religious beliefs’. It’s the TIMING, the thinly veiled underlying message, and ‘confusion’ of terms that are ‘problems’.”

“This is not OK” Morgan said Sunday. “Columbus is a gay friendly town; we are of the attitude that this kind of discrimination is disgusting.”

Because the billboard uses the word matrimony in place of marriage Morgan called the billboard’s wording “slick”, but “obviously anti-LGBT.”

Also in attendance Sunday was the Army veteran who was booed during a Republican presidential debate in 2011, Stephen Snyder-Hill, and his husband, Joshua Snyder-Hill (photo, above). Stephen’s book, Soldier of Change: From the Closet to the Forefront of the Gay Rights Movement, came out yesterday.

The company that owns the billboard refused to reveal the name of the person or group that sponsored the billboard, and would not state if they had posted the message themselves.

“There is a billboard that American Outdoor owns that advertises holy matrimony. We are a billboard company that sells advertising space on our billboards,” said a spokesman, according to CNN.

A local NBC affiliate reported on the story Sunday, noting that the owner of the billboard, according to protestors, “was not interested in their business.”

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Image, top, by Mark Hiser via Facebook