Stephanie Taylor was just trying to drive to work one morning in July.
But when she motored down Canton’s Cleveland Avenue South in Northeast Ohio, she passed a virulently homophobic billboard quoting Bible verse, condemning the LGBTQ+ community and calling them an “abomination.”
“When I’ve seen billboards like that before, I usually roll my eyes and say, ‘Whatever,’” Taylor said. “But that one just pissed me off, and I immediately thought, ‘Nope!’”
That’s when the 44-year-old wife and mother of two immediately embraced another one of her titles: ally to the LGBTQ+ community.
Wanting to fight fire with fire, she immediately called Lamar Advertising Company, the billboard operator, to inquire what it would cost to install billboards with an LGBTQ+ affirming message – including replacing the “abomination” billboard as soon as it expired.
“It was like $1,200 for like four weeks, and I was just going to buy one,” Taylor said. “But then friends encouraged me to start a GoFundMe.”
The donations started pouring in.
Taylor quickly raised over $3,000, enough to install three billboards in Stark County. The designers at Lamar helped her create a vibrant, rainbow-hued “Love is Love” billboard that went up just in time for the crowds arriving in Canton for the Football Hall of Fame Weekend at the end of July.
“The Hall of Fame parade marched right by our billboards, which was beautiful,” Taylor said.
Not only have the donations continued to roll in, but so, too, have positive messages from her neighbors. One Canton shop owner told Taylor he had avoided driving down the street with the “abomination” message. When it was replaced with the “Love is Love” message, the shop owner at first thought he was hallucinating but ultimately was able to resume driving his shorter route to work.
“People should be able to just live their lives without randomly encountering hate,” Taylor said. “I hope these [“Love is love”] billboards are bringing comfort to the right people and hopefully pissing off the right people with a ‘putting them in someone else’s shoes’ moment, which hopefully will evoke some empathy.”
According to the billboard, the “abomination” messages are sponsored by AV Sign Ministry, a project of Calvary Baptist Church in Akron. The Buckeye Flame reached out multiple times to Joe and Cindy Marshall, the named organizers on the AV Sign Ministry website, but they did not respond.
For her part, Taylor will keep installing new billboards as long as the donations keep coming in. But she wants to be clear that her target audience for the GoFundMe isn’t LGBTQ+ Ohioans; it’s allies.
“This is a chance for allies to be more vocal and put action behind their allyship,” Taylor explained. “The LGBTQ+ community has enough going on.” 🔥
IGNITE ACTION
- To contribute to the “Replace Hate With Love” fundraising campaign, go here.
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