Equality Is....

When I glimpsed this window, I thought it was a spontaneous celebration of the passage of the Gay Marriage Bill in New York State this past Friday. So I went into the store to see if that was the case, and I learned that the ad campaign was conceived in North Carolina months ago. All the stores in the chain have these ads in their windows now.

The backstory: a male couple, open and proud, both from fairly humble families, build a multi-million-dollar furniture business. Their website tells their story (they had an amicable breakup; their in-laws still consider them family). They care about children and pets (especially bulldogs). They don't like mean people. They provide comfort for everyone (who can pay for it). Despite the breakup of their love relationship, they still share the business, and the "more political" of the two starts an organization to fight religious bias against gay people.

Their most recent ads feature the equal sign that is the symbol for the Human Rights Campaign (supporting gay marriage) with their motto, "Equality Is Comfort for All."

While I realize that my ambivalence is itself a first world problem, I just have a few questions. Is the success of this company an example of what's good and what's changing in society? Is it enterprising and edgy for a gay couple (albeit "divorced," sort of) to use the symbol for gay marriage to sell furniture? Is it brave--do they risk losing potential buyers who disapprove of gay people? Or is it exploitative and classist? Is it blatant commercialism? I can see both sides of this.

I have one of these Equal signs on the bumper of my car because I do believe Queer people  should have equal rights to civil liberties such as marriage and divorce. Not that a sticker on my car makes a difference, and not that I have anybody to marry or divorce, but the bumper sticker is one small way to take a stand.

It's the proclamation that equality is equal comfort for all that makes me squirm. It's the cushions and the privilege that cushions the few who have it, that makes this old social radical un-comfortable. And yet...I'm glad the guys have made it. I'm glad they have the power to put these signs in their store windows. But I think about all the struggles for human rights I've participated in during my long life...I think about the people who have lived and died to campaign for human rights, I think about Mandela's years on Robben Island, about Queer people being bashed, raped, and in some places imprisoned and executed...and somehow equal comfort for all just doesn't cut it.