Watch Out San Francisco! South Carolina = Gay!

Look out San Francisco! South Carolina is making a play for our lucrative gay tourism revenues.

Sound absurd? Consider:  SF may have The Castro, Pride, and legalized marriage, but South Carolina has Hilton Head, antebellum mansions, and burly Civil War reenactors dashing though the woods in cute uniforms. And which of those do *you* think Judy Garland would prefer??

Frankly, this confirms a suspicion that has probably been lurking in the minds of many San Franciscans for quite some time. (“South Carolina = GAY!”) But back in the Palmetto State, some of the locals are reluctant to come out of the closet. MSNBC reports:

A state employee has resigned and officials have disavowed an international advertising campaign that led to calls for an investigation of tourism posters proclaiming “South Carolina is so gay.”

The campaign, which plastered the London subway with posters advertising the charms of South Carolina and five major U.S. cities to gay European tourists, landed with a resounding thud in South Carolina, where the issue of gay rights has long been a political flashpoint. […]

The tourism department quickly said it was canceling payment of its $5,000 fee for the posters, which it said were approved by a low-level state worker who did not run the idea by senior officials. The employee, who was not identified, resigned last week, the agency said.

A spokesman for Gov. Mark Sanford, who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said the governor agreed that the posters were “inappropriate.”

image via Amro Worldwide