at www. borndifferent.org raises a question for doubters: “When did you decide to be straight?”
Submitted by admin on Sat, 2006-07-08 09:00.
The Denver-based Gill Foundation spent $900,000 on the campaign, which includes television ads, billboards and banners over downtown streets. It began in early June and will continue through early August.
The ads are only in Colorado Springs, which, organizers say, has a reputation for being hostile to homosexuals. The reputation dates back at least 14 years to a state constitutional amendment Colorado voters approved banning protected status for gays. The amendment's backers were based here. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the amendment in 1996.
Many of the advertisements do not directly address sexuality. The street banners, for example, feature only the silhouette of Norman and the word moo. That message didn't reach Eddie Cheesman, a Colorado Springs resident who has seen the banners from his job at a club on Tejon Street. Cheesman said he's also seen the TV commercials, and recently several people were downtown handing out napkins printed with the dog image and Web site address.
“It was definitely designed to get people talking, wondering, asking questions about what is this,” he said. “It's friendly, and it's not heavyhanded, and it's designed just to get people talking,” he said.
The campaign Web site points readers to a news release from the University of East London on research released last year that found 2 percent to 4 percent of people are born gay. It also notes homosexuality in the animal kingdom and says it's impossible for gays to change their sexuality.
The idea isn't to offer conclusive scientific proof one way or the other but to stimulate discussion, said Mary Lou Makepeace, director of the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, which is based in Colorado Springs. The fund is a project of the Gill Foundation.
“What saddens me the most about this is that gays and lesbians themselves are being kept in the dark about the true nature of sexuality,” he said.
This is cache, read story here
The Denver-based Gill Foundation spent $900,000 on the campaign, which includes television ads, billboards and banners over downtown streets. It began in early June and will continue through early August.
The ads are only in Colorado Springs, which, organizers say, has a reputation for being hostile to homosexuals. The reputation dates back at least 14 years to a state constitutional amendment Colorado voters approved banning protected status for gays. The amendment's backers were based here. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the amendment in 1996.
Many of the advertisements do not directly address sexuality. The street banners, for example, feature only the silhouette of Norman and the word moo. That message didn't reach Eddie Cheesman, a Colorado Springs resident who has seen the banners from his job at a club on Tejon Street. Cheesman said he's also seen the TV commercials, and recently several people were downtown handing out napkins printed with the dog image and Web site address.
“It was definitely designed to get people talking, wondering, asking questions about what is this,” he said. “It's friendly, and it's not heavyhanded, and it's designed just to get people talking,” he said.
The campaign Web site points readers to a news release from the University of East London on research released last year that found 2 percent to 4 percent of people are born gay. It also notes homosexuality in the animal kingdom and says it's impossible for gays to change their sexuality.
The idea isn't to offer conclusive scientific proof one way or the other but to stimulate discussion, said Mary Lou Makepeace, director of the Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, which is based in Colorado Springs. The fund is a project of the Gill Foundation.
“What saddens me the most about this is that gays and lesbians themselves are being kept in the dark about the true nature of sexuality,” he said.
This is cache, read story here