Complaints from local residents compelled a billboard agency to remove a P-FOX ad along Interstate 19 in Tucson, Arizona, only three days after the billboard was first noticed.
According to KVOA-TV,
P-FOX didn’t pay for the billboard, but it was placed in a non-revenue space by Clear Channel Outdoor.
Jason Cianciotto of Wingspan asked KVOA, “What gives? Why in the world as we focus on holidays does Clear Channel support attacking a minority group here in Southern Arizona?” says Cianciotto.
Wingspan is southern Arizona’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community center. Cianciotto has in the past defended gay youth from harassment and attempted censorship by antigay political activists.
Cianciotto told KVOA, “I think Clear Channel needs to answer some questions because who’s to say they’re not going to put up another PSA for conversion therapy.”
As a youth, Cianciotto was subjected by his parents and a “Christian lay counselor” to forced isolation, repression, and eventually abandonment when it became apparent that ex-gay “change” wasn’t really possible.
Columnist Anne T. Denogean wrote about Cianciotto’ difficult adolescence in an article in the Tucson Citizen in April 2008. Truth Wins Out commented on the ex-gay abuse suffered by Cianciotto here.
