Ben and Jerry’s big gay ice cream

When you grow up as a teenager in a small colonial town in Massachusetts there aren’t a lot of things you can do. In the 80’s, I passed the time in my small town with a cassette tape Walk-Man, movies on the VCR, diary writing, walks in the woods, and Ben and Jerry’s. I was eating Cherry Garcia long before this small town girl had any clue who Jerry Garcia was.
courtesy of Ben and Jerry’s

As a lifetime fan of the multi-textured ice cream company (I credit them for giving me my first understanding of the need for multiple textures in food), I was pleased to see Ben and Jerry’s announcement yesterday that for the month of September their popular “Chubby Hubby” ice cream would be renamed “Hubby Hubby” as a way to celebrate Vermont’s recent decision to grant gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry.

With so few mainstream companies today willing to stand up for anything that could possibly threaten their market share, it is refreshing to see Ben & Jerry’s team up with Freedom to Marry, a marriage equality group, to show support of the right of gay couples to marry.

“At the core of Ben & Jerry’s values, we believe that social justice can and should be something that every human being is entitled to,” said Walt Freese, Chief Executive Officer of Ben & Jerry’s.

According to a press release Ben and Jerry’s hopes the renaming of the flavor will “raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality and to encourage other states to follow the blazing trails of Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, and Maine.” The name change of the ice cream is temporary and, for states like California, largely symbolic. The iconic ice cream flavor–a vanilla malted ice cream swirled with fudge and peanut butter and filled with fudge covered peanut butter pretzels–will only be available in Vermont for the month of September.

Let’s hope that soon, Ben and Jerry’s will announce that Chubby Hubby will forevermore be called Hubby Hubby, in celebration of a nationwide decision to allow marriage for all men and women, regardless of their sexual orientation.

Sign me up for a creamy scoop of social justice.