TEENAGERS from Bridgwater and Burnham have launched a poster campaign to tackle homophobia.

Members of the 2BU Group, a support group for young gay, lesbian and bisexual people in Somerset, have designed four posters portraying strong messages about the prejudice.

The campaign is being launched next Tuesday to coincide with national Homophobia Awareness Day and the young people hope to challenge negative attitudes towards homosexual and bisexual people.

Bridgwater College students Sophie Moore, Conor Riches and Hannah Tennant, and trainee mental health worker Liam Pouard from Burnham, have been involved in designing and making the posters.

The posters feature slogans including: 'Athletics: Don't Jump to Conclusions'; 'Rugby: Let's Tackle Homophobia'; and statistics including one revealing that 92% of parents responding to a YouGov poll believed homophobia should be tackled.

Group members felt sporting themes would relate best to students and each poster includes a photo of someone wearing a shirt of a particular sport with a slogan printed on.

The posters are now available to youth clubs, sports centres, health centres, and schools and colleges in the area.

Andrew Wilson, project leader, said: “The posters are free to anyone across the county who would like to display them and we hope people will be able to find some space on their notice board or in their shop window to put them up and help support us with this campaign.”