Man Kissing Billboards Blanket Portland?
Have you seen the signs for Pivot? Do you know what Pivot is?
Ok, second question first. Pivot is the new name for the Men’s Wellness Center. The change is described on the site as:
Pivot is a community space for men into men, and was formerly known as the Men’s Wellness Center. In response to ever changing times, the Men’s Wellness Center realized as it approached its fourth anniversary that it was time for a change. Hence the birth of Pivot.
…the new branding highlights the focus of the space as central to a shift in thinking about sexual health; a place central to community, both physically and metaphorically; and a space that serves to bring about change.
The Billboards feature images of man faces, mostly with the eyes obscured (kinda creepy) and some text about chatting, a safe space, etc. One of the images – the only that shows eyes – features two guys kissing each other. I have seen these billboards in two surprising parts of town.
I saw it on 82nd Avenue, around Foster Road.
I snapped the image below as I was driving on MLK, about to cross over I-84. Of course, my stupid picture missed the KEY PART – the kissing guys, due to an ill-placed lightpost obstruction. I do want to point out the heroics involved, however. And maybe that will make you feel better about the picture. Right in front of me was a Portland Police cruiser. All they had to do was look in the mirror to see me holding up the phone to take a picture WHILE DRIVING. Yeah, I do this all for you, people!
Below it is a picture of the “guys” so you can see the kissers.
I stumbled on this quote in an article about HIV/AIDS prevention in a Minnesota publication. Michael Kaplan is the Executive Director of the cascade AIDS Project, which is the parent of Pivot.
…Michael Kaplan from Portland went on to tell the story about some billboards his agency put up. They were fairly innocuous and showed cropped facial photos of four men looking forward and one showing two men kissing. Michael received numerous complaints, including one from a mother lamenting how her and her neighbors have to drive home a different way now so this “isn’t shoved in (our) children’s faces”. I think Michael sums it up nicely by adding “If we cannot allow images of our gay affection to appear, how can we ever get to addressing sexually transmitted infections among our community?”
So, I am not all that old-fashioned, or anything. And I hope I am not too old, period. But, I think the presence of these signs – and the fact that are not only placed in traditionally “gay” parts of town is really cool. I promise you that there are lots of cities where two men kissing on a billboard would NOT be ok. So…go Portland!
What do you think?
Tags: Cascade AIDS Project, Pivot
I saw this billboard and couldn’t figure out what PIVOT was, but figured it was some gay men’s thing. Since I am a lesbian I assumed it didn’t much pertain to me, but still it was cool to see an image of men being affectionate without being sexually explicit.
This must be the most chaste man loving man kiss in the history of kisses. Their barely touching! It’s such a silly thing to get worked up about in the grand scheme of things.
Go ahead, come out of the closet. Flaunt your gayness on billboards. It makes me sick to see this crap but, I will get used to it and it will be ignored. Until the people that can’t ignore it get violent, good luck with that.
Don – The signs are there just for people like you. Would a picture of a woman kissing a man elicit any response from you at all?
Actually Rob, I think any public display of affection is wrong. When you put it on a billboard and kids see it who don’t have the social maturity of an adult yet, your doing a disservice to that child. I think we need to be careful what we expose our kids to. Look, I’m not against gay marriage or the existence of homosexuality its part of life but, lets not influence young minds either way until they are old enough to make a decision.