VIDEO VAULT: Gay billboards in Richmond — Dec. 1987
RICHMOND, Va. (WTVR) – In December 1987, the Richmond Virginia Gay Alliance posted billboards around town that read, “Someone You Know Is Gay . . . . Maybe Someone You Love.”
At the time, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported:
A telephone number will also appear on the billboard in which callers will hear a message intended for both homosexuals and non-homosexuals. RVGA is an organization of lesbians and homosexual men. The group says it received funds from homosexual and non-homosexual individuals, businesses, and religious and human rights organizations.
In 2011, the campaign was created with new billboard signs outside the Gay Community Center of Richmond, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original billboard and to honor local activist Guy Kinman.
Kinman, 96, is a retired minister and former Navy chaplain who has been a leader of Richmond’s LGBT community for decades. In 1987 Kinman became President of the Richmond chapter of the Virginia Gay Alliance.
For more about the signs, click here, to the GCCR website.
