IF YOU entered a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream shop in Australia to order a two-scoop serving of the same ice cream flavour, be prepared for the response, “no ice cream for you!”
In protest of Australia’s Marriage Act, which refuses to recognise same-sex marriages, the company won’t serve “same scoop” ice cream orders until gay marriage is legalised in the country.
“Imagine heading down to your local Scoop Shop to order your favourite two scoops of Cookie Dough in a waffle cone. But you find out you are not allowed…You’d be furious!” Ben & Jerry’s wrote in an official statement. “But this doesn’t even begin to compare to how furious you would be if you were told you were not allowed to marry the person you love. So we are banning two scoops of the same flavour and encouraging our fans to contact their MPs to tell them that the time has come — make marriage equality legal!”
The goal of the popular world-wide ice cream brand is to encourage its customers to join in the fight for LGBTQ rights and contact Australian MPs to express their support for the legalisation of gay marriage. Ben & Jerry’s will also place special post boxes in the country’s 26 stores, giving their patrons the opportunity to write postcards to their MPs. The messages will be delivered to Australian Parliament later this month.
This isn’t the first time Ben & Jerry’s has gotten political — in America, the company has expressed its support for the Black Lives Matter movement and spoken out against Donald Trump’s travel ban. When the U.S. Supreme Court legalised same-sex marriage in 2015, Ben & Jerry’s released a celebratory ice cream flavour called “I Dough, I Dough.”
