CiNCiNNaTi sign's rainbow mode not political

The Duke Energy Convention Center's CiNCiNNaTi sign has been lit up with a few different colors the past week.

The sign, normally glowing with plain white lights, was lit up in "rainbow mode" beginning on New Year's Eve. As of Sunday, the lights were returned to their normal, white state.

Four days before the new year, Leelah Alcorn, a transgender female from Kings Mills, Ohio, committed suicide by walking into traffic on Interstate 71. The news of the local teen's death and her highly publicized suicide note became a worldwide story – putting the LGBTQ community in the spotlight.

The sign's colors, however, have no connection to the LGBTQ community's highly popularized rainbow flag that has been in use since 1978, said Ric Booth, Duke Energy Center's general manager. The "rainbow mode" illuminated on the sign was set that way for New Year's Eve.

The lights are not political in nature, he said.

In the past, the convention center has received requests to light the CiNCiNNaTi sign for a variety of causes, and all requests are considered on a case-by-case basis, Booth said.

A petition on change.org has since been posted asking for the Duke Energy Convention Center to relight the sign in rainbow. The petition is requesting 5,000 signatures in favor of relighting the sign until a 'Leelah's Law' against transgender conversion therapy is passed. Several days earlier, a petition on the same site, asking for congressional action towards a similar law, reached its goal of 200,000 supporters in just over two days.

Enquirer reporter Sharon Coolidge contributed to this report.



