In a Fight to the
End, the Billboards Lose
By JEFF VANDAM,
NYTimes on the Web, February 25, 2007
Staten Island, NY --AT the
moment, the Rev. Kristopher Okwedy has only one billboard on public view on
Staten Island. No bigger than a poster and sitting above Misu’s Unisex
Salon on Victory Boulevard in Tompkinsville, it shows a pair of hands holding a
box wrapped with pink ribbon. The text assures passers-by that eternal
life is “the Prescribed Lifestyle for All Humanity.”
Though few people paid much attention to the message on a warm afternoon last
week, two of Mr. Okwedy’s other billboards prompted considerable outrage on
Staten Island when they were installed in March 2000. “Thou shall not
lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination,’ ” they read,
quoting a translation of Leviticus 18:22.
The two billboards, which were installed in Port Richmond and St. George, were
called antigay by gay groups and civic leaders, and were replaced the next day
by PNE Media, the company that had installed them. Mr. Okwedy, who had
commissioned the billboards, in turn sued the company, along with the city and
Guy Molinari, then the borough president, claiming that his First Amendment
rights had been infringed.
On Feb. 16, after nearly seven years of battles in state and federal courts,
the United States Supreme Court reviewed Mr. Okwedy’s lawsuit to determine
whether it would hear the case. The answer, the court reported on Tuesday,
was no.
Though disappointed, Mr. Okwedy sounded philosophical about the ruling.
“When the Supreme Court says no, there’s nowhere else you can go,” he said the
day after the ruling was announced. “That case is dead.”
Mr. Okwedy, who was represented by lawyers from the Mississippi-based American
Family Association, a conservative group, said he still believes that his
freedom of speech was violated. But in the view of a lawyer from the
city’s Department of Law, which represented Mr. Molinari and the city, judges
saw little to agree with in Mr. Okwedy’s arguments.
“They found he simply hadn’t established any merit to his claim under the First
Amendment of the Constitution,” said Alan Krams, senior counsel for the
department’s appeals division.
Mr. Okwedy plans to continue to preach at his church, KeyWord Ministries in
Mariners Harbor, and to spread his message through outreach, but he acknowledged
that his opinions are in the minority.
“I believed that God wanted to make a statement, and he did,” Mr. Okwedy said.
“Obviously, people felt that statement is not something America wants to hear.
But I go on, and I preach the message of hope and salvation to all.”
(Emphasis Added)
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