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Homophobia, Racism, Islamophobia- One Billboard To Rule Them All

10/13/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
The billboard originally featured a swastika, a Muslim crescent an Soviet emblems. The toned down version is bad enough. The poker themed attack billboard portrays President Barack Obama as a gay man, a bandito, a pimp and a suicide bomber, and the four different versions of Obama are all engaged in a game of three-card stud where the cards display triple sixes. The billboard is by Tea Partier artist Paul Snover.

According to the Grand Junction Sentinel:

A Grand Junction billboard depicting President Barack Obama as a terrorist, a gangster, a Mexican bandit and a gay man is getting national attention.

The billboard, erected along the I-70 Business Loop between 28 1/2 and 29 roads sometime Monday, depicts the four “Obamas” sitting around a table with playing cards showing only sixes bunched in groups of three.

Also on the table is a copy of the Declaration of Independence, a liberty bell, a toy soldier and a statue of Justice holding a balance.

Snover was commissioned to paint the billboard, but refuses to say who it was. He did say “I am not allowed to say who [paid for it] at this time . . .If it had been me, I would have included the Republicans as part of the problem.” Of course, he could have refused to paint such an obviously homophobic and racist billboard if he had disagreed with it.

The billboard comes a year after a similarly offensive, but not as flamboyant, billboard appeared in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Car dealer Phil Wolf was behind that one, but he has not been reached for a statement. Someone associated with the dealership does not believe that Wolf has anything to do with the recent one.

Bradley Fulkerson of BillboardsForAmerica.com has also denied responsibility for this particular billboard. He noted that “No, this is not one of our billboards. Only billboards shown on our website are our billboards.” The site use to be BillboardsAgainstObama.com.

Local officials from both parties have denounced the billboards:

Mesa County Democratic Party Chairwoman Martelle Daniels called the billboard racist and homophobic, while her GOP counterpart, Mesa County Republican Party Chairman Chuck Pabst, called it “juvenile.”

“It’s beyond disrespectful,” Daniels said. “You would like to think that we all would show respect for our commander-in-chief, but this is just beyond that. It’s racist, it’s homophobic, and it’s really cowardly.”

Like Daniels, Pabst said he doesn’t like it because it doesn’t help further intelligent dialogue about the president or his policies.

“That kind of political positioning and statements, I think, are in bad taste,” Pabst said. “It’s reprehensible and disrespectful, and that’s not what any honorable person would put forth. To ridicule somebody in this manner is juvenile.”

Despite recent claims by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), the Republicans have been seen as out of touch with the pulse of America and that they are increasingly racist, homophobic and antisemitic as well as antihemitic.

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