ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 24, 1996 TAG: 9603220017
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE/STAFF WRITER
The message was ``kind of `in your face' - which is what billboards are supposed to be,'' said Matt McAllister, assistant professor of communication studies at Virginia Tech. On the surface, the message was simple: ``Diversity Enriches.'' But the community reaction it has aroused over the past two months has been a testimony to the power of advertising and the region's depth of feeling on the subject of homosexuality.
In general, Americans throughout their history ``have been pretty tolerant about a lot of things - including sexual variations - as long as people don't jump up and hit their neighbors in the face with them,'' said Tech sociology professor Clifton Bryant.
Some people saw the ``Diversity'' billboard as such an affront, Bryant said, and generated a counter-reaction to its underlying message of tolerance for homosexuals. Concern about the public reaction led one company to decline to place the billboard in Roanoke last fall, and for another firm to cut the message's run short in the New River Valley in January.
The billboard displayed the words ``Diversity Enriches'' over a multicolored background. A line at the bottom read ``Gay and Straight Citizens of Southwest Va.''
The sign was created and sponsored by the Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, which promotes civil rights for gays and lesbians.
More than a year ago, when a Roanoke company sold billboard space for similar ads that read ``Celebrate Diversity,'' someone spray-painted the words ``kill fags'' over one of them. The sign was quickly repaired.
When the company declined to display the new ``Diversity Enriches'' billboards last fall, the sign's sponsors went to Christiansburg. A company there put up one billboard in January, but took it down less than a week later after receiving 50 phone calls complaining about the message. Some of the callers threatened to vandalize the company's property. The company said it didn't receive any complaints until after a photo of the billboard ran in the New River Valley Current section of The Roanoke Times.
The sign's removal and subsequent news stories about it prompted more than a dozen letters to the editor of this newspaper.
McAllister, who has done research on billboards, said the nature of such advertising may have made the message more controversial than it might have been in another medium.
Billboards have a measure of ``permanence. ... They are up there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until you can't pay for it any more.
``People know subconsciously that advertising doesn't occur in isolation, but often links with what surrounds it. ... If people watch a TV show and see an ad that grates on them, then they might think less of the TV show.''
With a billboard, McAllister said, ``the surrounding is the community. It is symbolically linked with the community around it more than any other types of media. With a sign on a public street, people might think that says something about the community.''
The message eventually was displayed in Roanoke - but not on a fixed billboard. Municipal buses carried the ``Diversity Enriches'' message on their sides last month without drawing any letters to the editor.
The message on buses ``is not as visible,'' McAllister said. ``It is smaller, it's not in one place, it's easy to miss them because the thing they're on is moving.'' Consequently, the message is less likely to generate controversy, he said.
Objections to the ad were not based on a literal reading of the ``Diversity Enriches'' message, said sociologist Bryant, but on a recognition that ``diversity'' has ``become a code word.''
Not so long ago the message might have been read as an appeal to embrace people of different nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, Bryant said. Now readers know it may describe people ``who run the spectrum of political orientations, religious variations and sexual orientations.''
The latter is particularly volatile, he said, because ``variations are showing up today that people wouldn't have dreamed of too many years ago.'' Readers of the billboard may associate ``diversity'' not only with homosexuality, he said, but with other sexual practices they don't approve of, such as sadomasochism and bestiality.
That is ``taking diversity a little far for a lot of people,'' who might then be prompted to express their exceptions to the message, Bryant said.
The response to the message also could be linked to factors that have little or nothing to do with the billboard, he said. Sometimes just the season may make people ``irritable or put them in a reactive mood.
``If you think about it, you know that people get upset when the weather is very hot or very cold, or when they are locked inside for a long period of time,'' Bryant said.
Even national political campaigns or the actions of the General Assembly might affect the mood of a community and its reaction to a message such as ``Diversity Enriches,'' he said.
The Rev. Quigg Lawrence, pastor of Church of the Holy Spirit (Evangelical Episcopal), was among those who objected to the message.
People passing the billboard were ``stuck with a slogan that obviously means something'' but the ambiguity of which ``gets some people nervous.''
``I think a lot of evangelical Christians believe there is a clear message behind it,'' Lawrence said. ``It sounds pretty innocent, but if this is from a group that has lobbied to throw out sodomy laws'' or promotes homosexuality, then that message ``takes on a lot of meaning'' for people, like himself, who believe the Bible condemns that practice.
Lawrence, who became connected with the controversy because of his congregation's objections to his bishop's role as chairman of the Committee for Lesbian and Gay Concerns, said he regrets that the dispute became a ``spitting contest.''
``Letters have been filled with vitriol by people on both sides,'' he said. ``It's really sad. It paints people in a corner as either being pro-homosexual practice or homophobes. Most folks don't want to be at either pole.
``Our concern [not to promote a sexual practice that opponents of the message believe is sinful], I hope, is motivated out of love, not a witch hunt or a `put homosexuals away' mentality."
Despite all the negative attention the billboard attracted, the Roanoke Valley ``really is a fairly laid-back place in regard to diversity - specifically with regard to tolerance, if not acceptance,'' of gays and lesbians, said Sam Garrison.
Garrison, a gay Roanoke lawyer who was not associated with the latest billboard campaign, has been a visible and vocal advocate of gay and lesbian causes in recent years.
He believes those objecting to the ``Diversity Enriches'' message are a small but vocal minority who ``think they are losing'' on the issue.
``I don't attack people anymore for being homophobic. I might attack their actions - gay-bashing or other tactics. ... I'm not interested in attacking, but in advocacy and in trying to stimulate thinking,'' he said.
Though disappointed the billboards won't be seen here, Garrison sees a benefit to the controversy surrounding them.
``I think any time the public is given a reason to reflect on the issues involved - `What is this message?' `Why the fuss?' - they are stimulated to think. Then there is almost inevitably some small gain in terms of attitudes - if not of acceptance, at least of tolerance.''
LENGTH: Long : 131 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: File. A company put up this ``Diversity Enriches''by CNBbillboard in Christiansburg in January but took it down less than a
week later after receiving 50 phone
calls complaining about the message. color. Graphic by Robert
Lunsford. color.