The folks who head up the Saline County Republican Committee have sponsored a new controversial billboard. It reads “GOD CREATED ONLY TWO GENDERS.”
Our news partners at KARK had the story Wednesday evening. David Gibson, the chair for the republican committee, told KARK a group of Christian conservatives were behind the sign, though the committee also agrees with the message. Gibson referenced the Bible’s book of Genesis and its story about God’s creation of man and woman.
This move is on brand for Saline County Republicans, who spent lots of energy this year trying to move books with hints of queer relationships, sexual content or other themes they deem inappropriate from library children’s sections. During arguments at Saline County Quorum Court meetings for why the books should be moved, some residents expressed disappointment that there are many books in the library that are “anti-white” and “anti-Christian.”
In May, a conservative group put up a billboard that read “STOP X-RATED LIBRARY BOOKS.”
The latest billboard is five short words, but the message conveys an oversimplified idea with which progressive groups don’t agree. The billboard discounts the experience of nonbinary individuals or those who experience gender fluidity. It ignores the gender spectrum and assigns two distinct labels that not everyone fits into. It also, by only using pink and blue colors, emphasizes the narrative that those colors are gendered by their essence.
Rumba Yambú, the executive director of Intransitive Arkansas, kept their comment on the billboard short and sweet.
“Genders are socially constructed,” Yambú said. “And there is proof throughout history that a lot of different genders have existed and exist for decades around the world.”
An email to the Saline County Republican Committee was returned to sender Thursday morning. Multiple calls to the number listed on their website would not go through.