Why renaming Golden Gaytimes would be a terrible decision

Leave Gaytimes alone. Plans to change the iconic Aussie brand have been rubbished by the very people who could be expected to support the move.

OPINION

Coon cheese, Chicos, Uncle Ben’s and now Golden Gaytimes.

There are moves afoot to have one of Australia’s most iconic ice creams — most iconic brands full stop — renamed because the name is “outdated”.

As a gay man, and lover of ice cream, I can categorically say renaming Golden Gaytime would be the single most idiotic decision ever made.

And I’m not alone. There is practically no support from gay people to banish the Gaytime.

Quite the contrary, it brings much pleasure to gay Australians to know that their heterosexual brothers and sisters enjoy a gay time, sorry a Gaytime, as much as they do.

On the beach, in the car, on the sofa after a hard day’s work — Gaytimes for all.

Yes, renaming products may be all the rage. But there is not a single cogent reason why Golden Gaytimes should be the next banned brand.

Golden Gaytime has been called by its eye-opening name since 1959. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Daniel Pockett

This has all come to light because a chap by the name of Brian Mc launched a Change petition directed at Streets and its parent Unilever, the world’s largest ice cream maker.

Mr Mc described the name of the ice cream, which was first released in 1959 when gay was primarily a term for joy, as “outdated” and a “double entendre” that has to go.

“My sexual identity is owned by me, not a brand and that the outdated meaning no longer applies. Isn’t it time for this double entendre to end?”

In New Zealand, Gaytime is known by the coma-inducing name of Cookie Crumble. Mr Mc suggested “Golden Happy Time” might be a suitable new name. No, it isn’t.

In New Zealand, Gaytimes are called Cookie Crumble. Just no.

Renaming classic, much loved brands is a fraught area. Many slammed the rebranding of Coon cheese to Cheer given the brand was an homage to US cheese maker Edward Coon. No offence intended, they say.

Yet, whatever the origins, the term “coon” is now very offensive.

That means there was an argument that could be made for changing the name. In the debate between non-offensive surname and offensive slur, the brand’s owners sided with the latter.

But the campaigner is missing a simple but crucial difference between the likes of Coon and Gaytime: the word “gay” is not offensive.

Indeed, rebranding Gaytime could suggest the name is offensive.

Overwhelmingly “gay” is used simply as a noun to denote same-sex attracted people.

Indeed, gay people appear to love the brand, not loathe it.

RELATED: All the ‘racist’ names being changed

Coon cheese will soon be called Cheer.

GAY PEOPLE SUPPORT GAYTIMES

Graeme Watson, editor of LGBTI publication OUTinPerth which reported on the petition, said the one-man campaign was rubbished by his audience, with hundreds of comments in favour of it.

“The readers of OUTinPerth universally showed their love of Gaytimes and baulked at the suggestion of changing its name,” he told news.com.au.

One of the publication’s readers said she was “disgusted” at the “false equivalence” of characterising Gaytime as being as offensive as Coon cheese.

Another said they shouldn’t change the name but “add more rainbows”. Far from rebranding, one person said, the name should stay but Streets could donate to LGBTI charities.

Mr Mc said he was baffled as to “why people in the (LGBTI) community would stand by a product that has not supported the community”.

Yet, Golden Gaytimes are de rigueur at LGBTI events. Hardly a Mardi Gras goes by when one parade entrant doesn’t come dressed up as the ice cream, throwing knowing winks to the crowds as they pass by.

I wore a Gaytime T-shirt to the Mardi Gras parade this year. Its inventors never meant it to become a celebration of a gay old time but, hey, that’s what’s happened.

People dress up as Golden Gaytime for Madri Gras.

This is not an offensive name. It's embraced.#goldengaytime#gayicon#MardiGraspic.twitter.com/ojRcTu8bbg

— Shockadelic (@shockadelicaust) March 24, 2021

I'm not gay but I do love a gaytime https://t.co/t6f4aStwM5

— Juice on the Loose (@RealJuiceClark) March 24, 2021

A gay friend of mine who was nervous about coming out actually bought a Golden Gaytime when we were shopping and hoped we'd get the hint.

— Stephen Dedman. Writer in residence, in residence. (@stephenmdedman) March 24, 2021

Calling for the name of Golden Gaytime to change is pretty dumb and I don't support it, HOWEVER, I don't think it's completely unreasonable for us to ask Streets to have a yearly donation to an LGBT+ charity using profits from Gaytime sales. Honour the name instead of changing it

— Fig ✨🏳️‍🌈💖 (@TrashBoiFig) March 24, 2021

When I first set foot in Australia I marvelled when I was exposed to a delicious Gaytime.

The larrikin Aussie humour summed up in a single ice cream. Australians could have shunned Gaytimes but they’ve cherished it precisely because of its eye-opening but chuckle-inducing name, a name that would likely never be invented today.

When visitors come to Australia, it is my absolute pleasure to ask them if they’d like to have a Gaytime with me. And then to watch as a mild look of panic shoots across their face until I present them with a frozen confection made of reconstituted milk and something vaguely resembling chocolate.

Let’s cut Mr Mc some slack. In his petition, he talks of his struggles of being bullied, being told homosexuality was a sin and going through the now discredited practice of conversion therapy.

He, like many gay people, has been through the ringer. In his view, he’s had to fight for the right to be called gay, the ice cream hasn’t.

But banishing Gaytimes won’t banish homophobia.

More than 900 people have now signed the petition; people who could have called out real instances of homophobia instead.

People were attacked at this year’s Mardi Gras; the governments of Poland and Russia, to name just two, are actively making the lives of gay people worse; here in Australia plans to protect gay students and teachers at religious schools have been shelved.

Calling out Gaytimes as being “outdated” distracts from these real battles gay people still face.

Unilever today said the origin of the brand was about “having a joyous or happy time” and “is not and never has intended to cause offence”.

The food giant seems in no rush to cave and rename the classic treat. But corporations are jumpy these days, terrified of being shamed. If it feels like the sand is shifting, Gaytime will be gone.

Gay people, all Australians, need to wave away this nonsense or we may find ourselves reaching for a Cookie Crumble from the freezer. And that would not be a gay time at all.