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Linda Stay, a St. George mom, likes to read the new billboard as a cheer.
"L-G-B-T! Let's talk equality," she chants.
But she knows that many motorists might be puzzled by the message. What is LGBT?
"We're hoping it's going to create enough of an interest, an intrigue of, 'What the heck does that mean,' that people will go to the website," Stay says. The billboard's tagline reads EqualityUtah.org/South.
Stay is the field coordinator for a new southern Utah campaign launched by Equality Utah, the state's largest political advocacy group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender — yes, LGBT — community.
The campaign may be the most visible effort yet to get folks in St. George talking about what it means to be gay or transgender and what kind of legal protections the community is seeking in Utah. Next week, there will be an LGBT booth at the Washington County Fair.
"We're really making some history down here in this little conservative town," Stay says.
The yearlong, $30,000 campaign also will include a Cedar City billboard and other community events and workshops. Both billboards will be on northbound Interstate 15. The St. George one is between the Brigham Road and Bluff Street exits, where shoppers will spot it on their return from a visit to the Bloomington Walmart, Stay notes.
She hopes the Southern Utah campaign could help parents like her who have gay children. When her then-17-year-old son came out to her 13 years ago, Stay said she didn't really understand what it meant. On the heels of Matthew Shepard's murder in Wyoming, she worried whether her son could ever tell anyone else he was gay and be safe.
On the campaign's website, visitors can find information about the St. George chapter of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) and gay-straight alliance clubs at Pine View, Snow Canyon and Tuacahn high schools. There's also a link to a LGBT softball, volleyball and basketball league.
The effort also aims to bolster support for banning housing and employment discrimination based on a person's sexual orientation or gender identity. Utah does not have a statewide law that forbids firing someone for being gay as it does for firing someone based on religion, race or national origin.
But 12 Utah cities and counties, from Logan to Grand County, have adopted ordinances that protect gay and transgender residents from housing and employment discrimination. Cedar City rejected a similar proposal last year.
Brandie Balken, executive director of Equality Utah, says the southern Utah campaign is about "empowering" people to reach out to their elected officials — both in Washington County and in the state Legislature — to have conversations about equality.