Yesterday I was jogging at the gym on the treadmill. My gym has TVs right in front of the treadmill - you really can’t help but watch - usually on a sports channel. I’m not really watching usually, it just images in front of me, and it’s notable because I never watch TV anymore so it’s the only time I really connect with that part of the media. The show that was on yesterday was a sort of NFL recap show going over the weekend’s games - pretty standard stuff. They cut to commercial and my subconscious was only half paying attention. I couldn’t even tell you what ads came on. In the course of this there was a totally unremarkable ad for TGI Friday’s. I want to stress that this ad was really average. It was a totally boring ad about some food special they were running. I can’t remember it at all. Again: very boring ad in the middle of a very boring show. Then, my subconscious did a double-take. “Hey”, it said, “pay attention”. I was like “what, subconscious? This ad is pointless.” But then I looked again. Right in the middle of the ad, they showed a couple kissing over a shared meal. Then, they showed another couple. But this couple was two men. A quick, romantic kiss over the table, over top of their nachos.

The moment flowed by. They moved on to talking about the special itself. A totally predictable ending with some sort of call to action (“$5 fajita shooters!”). Then they went back to the show.

As ideas flow through a society, they go through a progression. At first they are forbidden. Then they are controversial. Then, it’s like they were never not normal to begin with. Gandhi said it best of course: “"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”.

I am not so foolish as to think that we’ve reached a point of total acceptance for gay rights in this country. That would be naive. But it seems remarkable how unremarkable the moment was. This wasn’t a video that was made to showcase or support gay rights. They were just selling crappy diner food. The gay couple kissing wasn’t a centerpiece of the ad; it just flowed past. It seemed, well…normal. Pedestrian. Everyday.