An illuminated roadside construction sign allegedly posted in Provo, Utah appears to display the words "God Hates Gays."
A video of the sign was posted to YouTube on Aug. 9 by user "SaveYourself777." In its description, the user said that she encountered the sign on University Avenue on her drive home Tuesday night.
"I thought this was messed up," she wrote, finding the message so objectionable that she needed to share it.
The user, whose name is Annie Frewin, shared the video on her Facebook page, and encouraged others to re-post. Frewin wrote that she felt proper action wasn't taken.
"[Nine times out of ten] there is a cop on that street, because I've never ever gone down that road, especially at 1 a.m., without seeing at least three cops at one end of that road between the overpass and the freeway entrances," she wrote on her wall. "If it was about anything else, it would already been taken down."
It was initially unclear from the information provided whether the sign appeared on a city road or on the Interstate 15 highway, so The Huffington Post contacted the Utah Department of Transportation, the City of Provo, the Provo Police Department and the Utah Highway Patrol for comment.
Employees of each bureau expressed shock upon hearing the news of the sign, in several cases saying it was the first they had heard of it. Eventually it was established that the sign was under the jurisdiction of the I-15 corridor project.
Utah Department of Transportation spokesperson Mindy Nelson told Gay Salt Lake that signs are maintained by contractors who have the messages approved by UDOT.
“The sign was most likely changed by one of the contractor’s employees who thought he or she was playing a prank. A very bad prank that is obviously unacceptable,” she said.
Inquires to UDOT regarding the contractor responsible for the sign, and the department's response and investigation were not returned as of press time.
No comments:
Post a Comment