April 4, 2004

A Fleeting Issue

It was a fleeting moment. A full second perhaps, but nothing more.

But it was probably one of the coolest moments in commercials since Mean Joe Green traded his black number 75 jersey for a 16 ounce Coke in the late 70s.

T Mobile is touting their newest marketing scheme and rate plan with a new television commercial. A good one, I think, marketed to couples – note that marriage is never mentioned – who call each other on their mobiles so often that costs become exorbitant, prohibitive.

“Who are you calling so much?” one would ask the other.

“You,” the second would reply, wondering how they can call each other too much.

Another couple is seen repeating the lines.

Then it shortened to just, “You,” from one of the two.

Again.

Again.

Then it happened. The shorter, hairless, t-shirt clad man was wrapped in a towel shaving in front of a mirror with two sinks. The taller of the two hairless men, holding a folded piece of paper, stood in the bathroom doorway, and he said it.

“You.”

One of the biggest non-issues of late has been whether or not couples of the same gender should be allowed, legally, to marry. I never thought there should be that much debate over the matter. I always saw things as a simple equal protection issue. Gay couple, straight couple, who cares? So long as they’re in love and in for the long haul, it’s every right-winger’s wet dream of long-term commitment. I’m sure there are other schools of thought on it, such as the religious right saying that it’s against the teachings in the bible for couples that are made up of other than one man and one women to wed, but I don’t claim to know it all.

The two sides can argue endlessly over the merits of the should and should not, will and will not, over whether people recite their I dos under the eyes of the law.

Hats off to T Mobile for taking a stand on and putting in perspective an issue that, according to most Americans, ranks on the bottom of the list of things such as: the Iraq war, the economy, unemployment, lost manufacturing businesses to overseas competitors, Haiti, the sunspot cycle, the hangnail they have, their children doing drugs under their noses, appearances of government corruption, a crappy national energy policy, the shoes they’re wearing, what color the toilet paper is in the bathroom, etc.

Clear? Hope so.

I had a talk with my staunch right wing friend about it, and he couldn’t stop talking about how the government would have to revamp the tax law if gay marriage was allowed. Under my pressure to answer his argument seemed simply that he didn’t want to pay survivor benefits to some man simply because he was married to another man.

It didn’t fly with me, either.

If T Mobile wanted to sneak something past the viewing public or not, I think they’re spot on with how the issue should sit. The couple in question was jammed quickly in the middle of the commercial as if they were part of the woodwork, which couldn’t be closer to the truth. Because that’s what gay couples in long-term relationships are, part of the woodwork, a fixture.

They’re not going anywhere. And if we don’t acknowledge them and their right to enter into the contract of marriage under the law, neither will we get past this pointless issue.

- Rich