Ohio Billboard Attacking Same-Sex Parents Sparks Backlash
An anti-marriage equality group's billboard prompted an LGBTQ nonprofit to launch a counter-campaign celebrating same-sex parents.
A billboard in Lima, Ohio, sponsored by a national organization seeking to overturn marriage equality has sparked backlash from LGBTQ advocates across the state.
The sign features rainbow-colored words against a black-and-white photo of an opposite-sex couple with children. It reads: “Not child has two dads. No child has two moms.”
The billboard is part of a campaign by Them Before Us, a Seattle-based national organization seeking to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges. The group, which argues that the sole purpose of marriage is to procreate and raise children, belongs to the coalition behind “Greater Than,” an anti-marriage equality campaign backed by nearly four dozen right-wing and anti-LGBTQ organizations.
Them Before Us routinely uses rhetoric that likens same-sex parents to human traffickers, accusing same-sex couples of “buying” children through surrogacy and prioritizing adults’ wants over children’s needs. The group also argues that children who are not raised by opposite-sex parents are at an emotional and social disadvantage.
Katy Faust, president of Them Before Us, told The Columbus Dispatch that she hopes the billboards will encourage people to “de-normalize” homes without both a mother and a father. She claims that children raised without both biological parents are at greater risk of abuse and neglect.
“Personally, I think it’s just to stir up hatred and stir up debate since we’re getting close to election time,” Jeff Givan, a candidate for Ohio House District 78 and co-founder of the Lima Pride Alliance, told Toledo ABC affiliate WTVG. “It just really astounds me that people can put things up that stir up so much hate.”
“What bothers me about it is a child that sees this sign, and either asks their parent and gets either the hate-filled version… or they have to be explained why people feel this way… and children have enough issues they have to deal with,” he said.
Faust declined to say how many billboards were being posted in Ohio, whether they all bear the same message, how long they will remain up, or why the group selected Ohio for the campaign’s debut. But she said the strong response the organization has received is encouraging her to expand the campaign.
The Dayton-based LGBTQ nonprofit Have a Gay Day responded by launching a campaign to purchase its own billboards. One planned design uses the same font and aesthetic but instead declares: “Many children have two dads. Many children have two moms.” Another, set against a Progress Pride flag, reads: “You Are Loved.”
Michael Knote, executive director of Have a Gay Day, told The Columbus Dispatch that the organization had collected more than $18,000 within 48 hours of launching the campaign.
“Messages like this will be answered,” Knote said of the Them Before Us billboard. “There’s a little bit of accountability to it, but also a little bit of reassurance that the people in the middle of nowhere who see hateful messages also see messages that are kinder, that let people know that they are not alone.”
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