ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290051
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SERIES: A look back at 1995 - whatever happened to ...
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
WHAT DO YOU DO when an outdoor ad agency won't allow your "diversity" message on its stationary billboards? Buy moving ones.
First, proponents of a "Diversity Enriches" advertising campaign tried to sell their slogan to a local billboard company.
But heeding anti-gay criticism it received after allowing a similar "Celebrate Diversity" sign in 1994, Lamar Advertising in September deemed the message offensive and said "no way."
Next, the Committee on Gay and Lesbian Concerns tried to get Roanoke City Council to pass a resolution affirming that diversity does indeed enrich civic life in the city.
Not a chance. In October, council took a pass and referred the issue to a yet-to-be-revived Community Relations Task Force.
Nevertheless, the message is now getting around Roanoke - on Valley Metro buses.
The quasi-public mass transit company - Roanoke City Council is its board of directors - has provided advertising space to the committee, a group of gay and heterosexual citizens formed to combat prejudice against homosexuals.
Ten rainbow-draped signs were mounted on the rear of local buses Dec. 15, and will stay there until Jan. 15, said Valley Metro General Manager Stephen Mancuso.
"Isn't it great?" said Gene Edmunds, a local minister who serves on the committee. "Roanoke Valley citizens who celebrate diversity were able to get their message out after all. ... Love will find a way."
The committee, which raised more than $3,000 this year to advertise its message, spent $1,847 on the bus ads. In Christiansburg, where an outdoor advertising company was willing to sell space, the group rented a billboard for $450.
It spent another $600 for bumper stickers and paid $150 to WVTF, the local public broadcasting radio station, to sponsor a day of programming, Edmunds said.
So far, the bus signs have generated only a smattering of negative comments, Mancuso said. He's taken two complaining phone calls and received one letter.
"The bottom line is, because we are an advertising forum and because there is a First Amendment right to free speech, we're not in a position to object to a group that sponsors a message," Mancuso said.
"The message itself is certainly not something that's objectionable," he added. "'Diversity enriches' - you can read anything you want into that. Diversity is something that is valued in society, I thought."
He said the bus company knew in advance that some people would find the message objectionable. But "we also knew, if we didn't put it up, we'd be in jeopardy of bringing legal action against Valley Metro," Mancuso said.
The signs bill the sponsor as the "Gay & Straight Citizens of Southwest Virginia." That's not a formal group, Edmunds said, but the designation fits the people who gave the committee money for the campaign.
``The committee doesn't have any money; we raised it from citizens both gay and straight,'' he said, ``so we felt they were the sponsors.''
Mancuso said Valley Metro didn't earn cash from the specific ad. Rather, it leases space on its 38 buses to an advertising agency for a fixed fee of about $30,000 annually.
The agency then resells the space, he said.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. There are 10 Valley Metro buses inby CNBRoanoke with the message "Diversity Enriches" plastered on the back
of them. Buses were used after an ad firm rejected the idea. color. KEYWORDS: YEAR 1995