An electronic road sign near the Mormon church's Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah shocked motorist on Wednesday with the message "God Hates Gays."
A driver posted a video of the sign on YouTube on Thursday.
Provo Public Information Officer Helen Anderson said that the signed belonged to a contractor for the Utah Department of Tranportation, not the city.
"I personally find it very offensive," Anderson noted in a comment posted to YouTube. "Despite every effort to prevent it, sometimes signs like this get hacked. The city has contacted the team working on this construction project and they are looking into it."
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation did not return calls by the time of publication.
According to the YouTube description, the sign was located on University Ave., which runs through Brigham Young University's campus. The school's website says it was "founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," a religion which forbids gay sex.
Earlier this year, the campus group Understanding Same-Gender Attraction (USGA) created a video to speak out about the difficulty of being gay or lesbian at the Mormon school.
Several of the 22 students in the video confessed that that they had thought about taking their own life. In fact, 74 percent of LGBT students at Brigham Young have contemplated suicide, and a remarkable 24 percent have actually tried to kill themselves.
A 2007 clarification to the BYU honor code first allowed students to admit that they were gay or lesbian. And in 2010, LGBT advocacy was first allowed on campus.
But straight students at the school continue to have more rights than LGBT students, who can’t kiss or express affection in public.
(h/t: Good As You)
