Its Creators Call It Art
CHICAGO (AP)-Its creators call it art with a message. But when a poster showing kissing men and women was displayed on city buses, two politicians said freedom of speech had gone too far.
“Where will we draw the line in terms of this homosexuality -heterosexuality thing?” said city Alderman Rogert Shaw, who said he would introduce an ordinance banning the AIDS awareness poster. “Is anything going on in this country now [acceptable] under the guise of free speech?”
About 80 of the posters, which depict three couples – one heterosexual, one lesbian and one gay – each locked in a romantic kiss, were displayed on buses and at transit stations….
The transit authority was sued last year for refusing to post another AIDS awareness poster it deemed “too black oriented.” After the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit, the authority began displaying the ads, said John Hammell, who directs the ACLU’ s AIDS and Civil Liberties Program in Chicago.
Shaw said he planned to call a special City Council meeting to discuss his proposed ordinance, which would bar depictions such as that in Gran Fury’s poster.
“This poster has nothing to do with the cure of AIDS,” he said. ” It has something to do with promoting a lifestyle, which I object to.” State Representative Robert Regan, a Republican, said Tuesday he would reintroduce legislation in the Illinois General Assembly that would bar such displays of sexuality. A similar bill failed this spring….
-THE TENNESSEAN