South Carolina Not So "Gay" After All

A series of ads, timed to run with London's "Gay Pride" week, which ended last Saturday, have caused quite a stir.

The ads promoted the "gay beaches" of South Carolina, along with its Civil War plantations. Ads for Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, New Orleans and Washington, D.C. didn't elicit any reaction, but South Carolina ...

After a South Carolina political blog, The Palmetto Scoop wrote about the campaign, heads flew. A state employee has resigned and officials of the South Carolina Parks, Recreation, and Tourism (SCPRT) department have disavowed the campaign.

In fact, the department said it was canceling payment of its $5,000 fee for the posters. It said the ads were approved by a low-level state worker who did not run the idea by senior officials. That employee has since resigned.

Somehow I doubt something of this magnitude would not be passed by the higher-ups.

“South Carolinians will be irate when they learn their hard earned tax dollars are being spent to advertise our state as ‘so gay,’” Republican state Sen. David Thomas of Greenville said in a statement.

Despite the fact that the SCPRT disavowed any knowledge of the campaign, according to MSNBC, when the campaign was unveiled, it said the following:

“For our gay visitors, it is actually quite wonderful for them to discover just how much South Carolina has to offer — from stunning plantation homes to miles of wide sandy beaches.”