Several businesses across the Valley are involved in a new campaign focused on state discrimination laws. Organizers are using billboards to get their message across over the next two months.
Each billboard features company executives or employees explaining that their industry doesn’t discriminate and neither should Arizona. The businesses are members of ONE Community, a coalition co-founded by Angela Hughey.
“It’s an opportunity for us to rebrand ourselves, right?” she said. “We can’t just saw we’re open for business. We truly need to be open for business to everyone.”
Five cities in Arizona have laws that protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but the state does not.
In 2014, state lawmakers approved a bill that would have allowed business owners to cite their religious beliefs as reasons to deny service to others. Members of ONE Community distributed thousands of signs that read " Open for Business to Everyone." Then-Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the legislation.
Fourteen billboards are currently running across central Phoenix and along Interstates 10 and 17. Two more will appear on April 17.
