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I guess it’s just to much to ask for a little respect for laying your life on the line for your country for the cowards that did this.
A billboard in Memphis with the phrase “I’m gay and I protected your freedom” with a saluting Marine alongside it, was trashed last week. It was one of five purchased by the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC). (OnTopMag):
Will Batts, executive director of MGLCC, said the crime surprised him because it occurred on a heavily trafficked street just blocks from downtown Memphis and a police station.
“Although it’s in an iffy lot, it’s a fairly well trafficked street and being so close to the main police station downtown – a block and a half – it doesn’t seem that this could have happened quickly. To completely tear down the billboard – it wasn’t defaced, it wasn’t shredded, it’s just gone. And for that to happen on such a busy street is actually shocking to me,” Batts told On Top Magazine on Sunday.
As of yet there are no suspects, and MGLCC has asked for an investigation.
11 Comments
“Memphis” and “blocks from… a police station”How much further do you need to go for suspects?
If it’s any central business districtstreet these days–even if “iffy”–chances are there are several private or police security cameras nearby that could provide visual footage of the perps on the scene, or in the vicinity of the vandalism.
But I love the in-your-face advertising campaign, and propose that this type of billboard poster should be replicated in every region around the country, where local LGBT veterans do double duty: succinctly demolishing the rationales for Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell while simultaneously giving publicity to the region’s LGBT community center or hotline.
Come to think of it–I just might, in gratitude for the LGBT citizens I have been privileged to know and love who have served in our country’s armed forces, make a contribution to the Memphis G&L Comm Center today. Perhaps I should even give a little thanks to the individual(s) who tore down the billboard; otherwise this great advertisement probably would not have been on my radar at all!
Hear, Hear!!!
good one techbearbecause as you know the MEM cops have no crime to fight between the hrs of midnight and 4 AM. when the fedex sort is going down. so we can pretty much narrow it down.
Fort Worth, tooThank goodness there is so little real crime in their fair city that they can raid gay bars to “search for underaged drinking” and proceed to arrest people for being uppity.
Great ideas aboundI wish the glbt group in my state did more things.
Once I’m out of college, I plan to shake up some things.
More of the ongoing theme……of selective patriotism from the Right.
Criticize Bush purely on the grounds of his policies, and one was a traitor. Level horrible personal attacks (and even threats) at Obama, and one’s a hero saving Amurrrrka from TEH SOSHYALISM!!!!1!
Similarly — Say that you want to bring home the troops (because this will SAVE THE LIVES of thousands of them), and one is a traitor to the war effort. Deface a billboard honoring the service of soldiers who just happen to be GLBTQ, and one is a hero for Jayeeeezus.
I’m cubfused.
there is an explanationYou can’t really be a superpatriotic, war-boosting neo-conservative unless you have never worn the uniform! (Or at least, skipped drill weekends and never saw any fighting outside the O Club, that’s how W. qualifies). That’s why Donald (“You lose a war with the army you have”) Rumsfeld, or, say, Lush Rimbaugh qualify as A Genuine Patriot, and Max Cleland or John Kerry did not.
Cubforted now?
It’s easy to trash a billboard with impunity……Just equip your vandalism crew with construction worker clothes, orange vests and hard hats. Who’s going to stop them?
Great IdeaI also think this billboard is a great idea and should be replicated in cities around the country.
My only concern would be to make sure they represent all people affected by DADT- this means including white women, women of color and men of color. These groups are harder hit by the policy and in general are often made invisible by the veterans community.
No sh*t…..Come on people wake up. Law enforcement officers are not our friends. Put private security cameras up to cover these billboards and put the footage on youtube. You have to beat them at their own game.