An Oklahoma “country boy” who plastered a rainbow on his pickup truck in honor of Gay Pride Month is receiving a lot of love on the Internet.
Cody Barlow, who identifies as straight, said he wasn’t able to make it from his rural town to Tulsa for the closest Pride parade — so he came up with another way to show he was an LGBTQ ally and posted a photo of the move on Facebook.
Using duct tape, Barlow, 28, had turned the back of his 1991 Chevrolet Silverado into a rainbow flag with the message: “Not all country boys are bigots. Happy pride month.”
“This is important to me, not only because I have family and friends that are LGBTQ+, but also because countless people have dealt with hatred and judgment simply for who they are, and/or who they love, for far too long,” Barlow wrote on Facebook. “Obviously doing this isn’t going to change the minds of those who are intolerant, but hopefully it can help drown out the hatred with love.”
His Facebook photo, posted June 6, has since gone viral and been shared more than 78,000 times.
Barlow said that not everyone in his small town will find his sign to be a “very welcome message” — but that he hopes that it “can help even the slightest bit to encourage and support at least one person that needs it.
“I hope everyone finds their inner strength to finally live life loud and proud without regard for the negativity of ignorant people,” Barlow said.