“Richmond has such a stereotyped image, ‘the capital of the Confederacy,’ ” said Trey Keeler, one of the graduate students on the Brandcenter team that developed the OutRVA initiative.

The five-member team had gay and straight students from Richmond and elsewhere.

“The majority of us had our own perceptions of Richmond before coming to Richmond,” said Frank Guzzone, now with a New York ad agency.

And those perceptions were that Richmond would not be attractive to gays. “We had a lot to learn about Richmond’s gay community,” Keeler said.

What they found, Guzzone said, was that the region has a vibrant LGBT community.

“We felt the city of Richmond just needs to come out, and be open and honest about how great a place it is,” said Keeler, who now works in brand management in Los Angeles. “We wanted to highlight what Richmond’s like today.”

Last winter, the Brandcenter students introduced at their own expense the Out stickers, which use typography designed to play off the wildly popular RVA stickers. They already can be spotted on the windows of scores of businesses as well as on cars around town.