http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12924117&BRD=1769&PAG=461&dept_id=74969&rfi=6
By Jesse J. Smith , Freeman staff 09/15/2004
NEW PALTZ - Efforts by a conservative Christian group to proclaim on a local billboard that homosexuality is a curable condition suffered a setback recently when a billboard company refused to rent space to the group.
The Truthful Witness Campaign, a project of the New York Christian Coalition, had planned to rent a billboard on state Route 299 in New Paltz and post an advertisement provided by the Connecticut-based Stephen Bennett Ministries. The billboard was to feature a black-and-white photograph of Bennett with his wife and two children alongside the statement "Wonderful husband. Loving father. Former homosexual. Jesus Christ changes lives."
Bennett says he abandoned his homosexuality after a religious conversion.
The Truthful Witness Campaign, formed in response to same sex-weddings performed this year in New Paltz, was in the process of raising the $4,000 needed to rent the billboard from Highway Displays Inc. when, according to campaign coordinator Diane Garrison, officials from Highway Displays told her they would not allow the ad because of its content.
On Tuesday, the billboard firm's general manager, Jeff Hartman, confirmed that he and company owner Sandra Schwartz had rejected the ad after receiving a single complaint call following media coverage of planned advertisement.