The nation of Scotland has premiered a courageous new ad campaign against transphobes and homophobes. And it’s putting notice–on billboards.
The ads take the form of public letters, addressed to hateful people.
The transphobe-shaming billboard begins: “Dear transphobes, do you think it’s right to harass people in the street?” The homophobe-shaming board reads: “Dear homophobes, we have a phobia of your behavior.”
Both billboard messages end with the tagline, “Yours, Scotland” and encourage observers to “Hate crime. Report it to stop it.”
The public messages are sponsored by the government of Scotland and Police Scotland. It’s all part of the new initiative called “One Scotland”–a campaign designed to cut down the instances of hate crime in the Northern European country. One Scotland officially launches today.
There are additional billboards planned; these billboards will directly address racists and people who hate disabled persons. According to government statistics, an estimated 5300 hate crime charges were reported to Scottish authorities last year.
The same sources state that many such instances go unreported. Pink News quoted One Scotland as saying, “Police Scotland takes hate crime very seriously.”
Stonewall Scotland praised the ads as showing leadership.