Bus Ads Promoting Healthy Gays Defaced

The ads were meant to tell Chicago that health issues for gay men are about more than HIV and AIDs.

But someone removed or taped over three key words in the ads on the back of CTA buses: Gay, sexy and healthy.

"Clearly the words gay, sexy and healthy were provocative to some people,'' said Jim Pickett, director of advocacy for the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

The movie posters show men doing yoga, meditating and swimming. They include the question: How are you healthy? And they also include the words gay, sexy and healthy.

Pickett noticed the vandalism last Friday while he was on his lunch break downtown. White tape had been affixed over the words on an orange poster on the back of a bus. Someone told him a red poster had been defaced with red tape. He also saw that the three words were cut out or scratched out on some posters.

Pickett, whose organization planned the ad campaign with three other groups, said he notified the company that put up the ads, and they were replaced immediately.

The campaign was launched on 40 buses, and about 150 posters were placed on the L. The CTA said its records show four ads were defaced, and it's on the lookout for vandalism at the North Side garage where the buses carrying the posters are housed.

"We are not going to tolerate someone defacing ads and leaving them up,'' CTA spokeswoman Noelle Gaffney said. The vendor "and CTA have been told to be on the alert."

Noting how quickly the ads were replaced, Pickett said the gay community has suffered worse indignities. Still, the vandalism was a reminder of the everyday hostility the gay community faces, he said.

"Some people... believe that gay people are unnatural and diseased and bad people,'' he said. "Homophobia is alive and un-well.''

April 03, 2009