The Racine/Kenosha LGBT Center announced Friday it was sponsoring a billboard on Highway 32 promoting the website, GayNeighbor.org. Here's the press release from the center (billboard pictured above):
The bright new billboard on Highway 32 just south of County Line Road (KR) shows smiling men, women and children of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, marital status, and sexual orientations.
Whether they’re lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, the stated message remains unchanged: “Family. It’s all about love!”
Sponsored by the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin in partnership with the Cream City Foundation and nearly 40 community organizations, the billboard facing north, 400 feet south of County Road KR in Kenosha/Racine, is one of many to be found throughout the metropolitan Milwaukee area as part of Cream City Foundation’s Gay Neighbor campaign.
Transit signs, paper and digital billboards, and Spanish language signage direct commuters and passersby to www.GayNeighbor.org, where they are encouraged to learn more about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues and to read stories of real-life LGBT people or the people that love them actually living within our community.
“Putting a face on an issue that some people may find complicated or difficult to comprehend often helps us to realize how much we have in common and how petty some of our differences really may be,” says Dr. Bruce Joffe, the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin’s Executive Director. “That’s why we wanted to sponsor this message on such a busy road in our area: to promote our shared humanity and values held in common.”
In addition to Racine and Kenosha, commuter freeway routes in Milwaukee and the Ozaukee and Waukesha suburbs are heralding this same themed message.
“The Gay Neighbor billboard media are part of a public education campaign that challenges stereotypes about gay families in Southeastern Wisconsin by asking people to take a look at what a gay family really looks like,” says Cream City Foundation’s Executive Director María Cadenas. “These billboard images of real neighbors illustrate our shared values of love, family, and commitment—emphasizing fairness for everyone, including gay and transgender people and their families.”
The billboards will remain up at least throughout September.
This is the second consecutive year that Southeastern Wisconsin has seen Gay Neighbor billboards and media aimed at creating more LGBT-friendly allies.
