ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, January 25, 1996 TAG: 9601250050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
"Diversity Enriches" was the simple message of the rainbow-colored billboard on Roanoke Street.
"That was a board that I could drive by and ask my 12-year-old, `Do you know what that means?''' said Mary Arnold, a health care professional who lives in Christiansburg.
That's why she was upset Tuesday when she drove by the sign and saw workers covering the billboard - which had been up since last Thursday - with a new message. It now touts downtown Pulaski as being "open for business."
"I just thought it was a doggone crying shame," Arnold said when she saw the message being covered up. "Those two words are absolutely correct."
Arnold, who has no affiliation with the group that bought the billboard space, said she was concerned that a picture of the "Diversity Enriches" billboard in Tuesday's New River Current section of The Roanoke Times had been its undoing.
The sticking point for those who objected to the billboard likely is a tag line at the bottom that attributes the message to the informal group, "Gay & Straight Citizens of Southwest Va.''
The billboard message, paid for by advocates of gay and lesbian rights, was scheduled to be up for a month in the 1300 block of Roanoke Street near the Hill's shopping center. It cost the group $450.
A similar billboard message in Roanoke provoked anti-gay criticism in 1994 and prompted an outdoor advertising company to give the thumbs-down to a Roanoke group who wanted to pay for "Diversity Enriches" billboards there last fall. But no one had called to complain about the Christiansburg billboard through Monday, said Frank Amburn, manager of the Dublin office of Outdoor East, the company that owns the billboards.
That changed Tuesday, when the photo ran in the newspaper.
"Today, a floodgate broke loose," Amburn said Tuesday night. The company received at least 50 phone calls Tuesday afternoon complaining about the sign, he said.
"They could find nothing offensive about the copy itself, except for the name of the group," he said.
The decision to cover up the billboard came down to a fear for his company's property, Amburn said. Several callers threatened to destroy other billboards owned by the company.
Amburn said he'll refund the money the group put up for the billboard.
Peggy Eaton, with the local chapter of Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays, said her group helped get the billboard up in Christiansburg.
She said no one had told her the sign was going to be covered up - she found out it had been changed as she looked for it in her rearview mirror when she was driving on Roanoke Street.
"I don't believe this," she recalled thinking. "I would just think better of this community."
Eaton was somewhat soothed after finding out from Amburn on Tuesday night that he would refund the money.
"We had a lengthy conversation, and I do feel for the man," Eaton said Wednesday. "He said it really, really got ugly for him. ... I'm not finding fault with him."
Eaton is deciding how her group will react to the sign cover-up.
"Whatever we do, it's got to be on a positive note, and it's got to show that we're better than this."
Whether people "approve of someone's lifestyle, they have a right to be who they are," Eaton said.
Staff writers Betty Hayden and Brian Kelley contributed to this story.
Because of production problems, this story did not appear in the most of the newspapers distributed Wednesday in the New River Valley.
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. GENE DALTON/Staff. No one had complained to theby CNBbillboard company until a photo ran in Tuesday's newspaper ... 2.
ALAN KIM/Staff. ... but then, "a floodgate broke loose," said
Outdoor East's Frank Amburn. So, fearing for his company's property,
he covered the sign. color.