An anti-LGBT group has posted a billboard in in the Iron Range community of Hibbing and it’s creating a stir.

The Minnesota Child Protection League purchased a billboard in Hibbing that reads, “Don’t betray our children. Stop the bullying bill.” and targets Sen. David Tomassoni.

But lesson number one in messaging is to make the message clear. Hibbing residents weren’t getting the message according to WDIO.

“I’m just not understanding why they want to oppose it. Like they don’t want that law?” Sara Lavalier told the station.

She is the mother of a 5-year-old boy and supports tougher state laws on bullying.
“To put a stop to it. I mean I have a child. I wouldn’t want my child to go through that,” Lavalier said.

“Well what is it teaching everyone really? That it’s okay to bully or to be bullied and not stand up for yourself? I don’t agree with it,” Brita Moberg said.

MNCPL says the billboards will go up in a dozen other communities around Minnesota.

MNCPL is a group that has been touring the state trying to drum up opposition to the bill. The group that has compared gays and lesbians to pedophiles, and claimed that the bill “will usher in another sexual revolution, sexual anarchy, unrestricted sexuality to love whoever you want” simply because the bill would include LGBT students in a list of 16 characteristics it directs schools districts to pay attention to.

KSTP spoke with Michele Lentz of MNCPL:

The station did a separate interview with Monica Meyer of OutFront Minnesota, which is leading the Safe Schools for All Coalition, a group of 90-plus organizations.

OutFront Minnesota also told its supporters in an email on Sunday, “Our opponents – the Child Protection League and the Minnesota Family Council – are launching a billboard campaign to defeat the Safe & Supportive Schools Act by using scare tactics to try to persuade legislators to vote against it.”

OutFront says the claims made by MNCPL are false.

“[T]he Child Protection League made false claims that school districts will lose local control and says the bill will repeal all policies currently in place. This is NOT TRUE,” the group said in an email. “The bill DOES NOT mandate that a statewide, one-size-fit-all bullying policy be applied. If passed, school districts will have the flexibility to develop their own policy in a way that fits their schools and their students. And, the bill encourages school districts, to engage and partner with students, parents, and the community when developing policies on bullying prevention.”