An anti-gay Detroit-area billboard is drawing fury from some local residents, while one man is promising a similar response.
Ferman Smith was driving in Dearborn Heights, Michigan when he saw something so outrageous he says he had to turn around and go back to photograph it. Above, the photo Smith took and posted to Facebook.
The Oakland Press reports this is just one of an untold number of billboards that share the same message: “Homosexuality is a behavior,” they insist, “not a civil right.” Smith says he was “dumbfounded.”
The billboards are part of a money-making campaign by a coalition of anti-gay organizations and anti-gay hate groups, partnering to spread lies while trying to profit from their message of hate.
The billboards are sponsored by Restrain The Judges. Its website says the coalition includes the American Family Association, Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, and Scott Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries – all of which appear on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s anti-gay hate groups list. Other organizations include the Liberty Alliance and Faith 2 Action. Also included in the coalition is Matt Barber’s BarbWire website, which repeatedly has published authors who have called for the death of gay people.
Restrain the Judges offers visitors the opportunity to email a faux “restraining order” to lawmakers in Congress and justices at the Supreme Court. For the low, low price of just $49.95, you can give these anti-gay groups all your personal contact information, and your credit card number, so they can do the same thing you can do for free elsewhere.
Smith wants to create a billboard in response to the anti-gay hate message, and he’s started a GoFundMe page to do just that.
Â
Image via Facebook