A billboard erected last week in
Louisville, Kentucky is creating controversy.
“Not everyone who is gay is happy.
You have options,” states the billboard for the “ex-gay”
ministry Abba's Delight.
“We have a specific message to a
specific segment of the gay community,” Daniel Mingo, head of
Abba's Delight Christian Ministry, told
WLKY. “And for someone who isn't happy in a gay lifestyle,
that's not a hate message. That's a message of salvation. That's a
message of hope.”
But while Mingo insisted that “nobody
is trying to change anybody,” his website makes it clear that his
ministry believes being gay is a sin and a choice.
“Unfortunately, the liberal media,
Hollywood and those promoting a gay agenda to normalize and
mainstream gay life, have continued to promote the 'I was born gay'
myth to the point that even now some churches have begun to buy into
it,” the
group said. “Abba's Delight holds that the attractions are not
sinful, but the behaviors are. So, even if science were to prove a
definite genetic link as a cause for homosexuality, the Bible
declaring homosexual activity sinful would remain our standard for
truth.”
Chris Hartman, executive director of
the Fairness Campaign, an LGBT rights group, called the billboard
“offensive.”
“Folks are angry,” Hartman said.
“They're offended and I think that they don't feel that there is a
place for that type of thing here in Louisville.”
Mingo, however, said he has no plans to
take down the billboard.