Ben and Jerry for N.Y. Marriage Equality

Ben & Jerry's cofounders, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, contribute a video to the New Yorkers for Marriage Equality series from the Human Rights Campaign.

In the 30-second spot, the ice cream company founders explain that they became friends during junior high school in Merrick, Long Island. Long Island is represented by Republican senators being lobbied to vote yes on the marriage equality bill pending in the state legislature. Polls show that majorities of voters in the New York suburbs including Long Island support the bill, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a bipartisan coalition of advocates, New Yorkers United for Marriage, are working to pass before the session ends on June 20.

"You know, marriage is like good ice cream," says Greenfield in the video. "It brings out the joy no matter which flavor you love."

Cohen adds, "Quality is good for ice cream. Equality is good for the soul."

Two years ago, when Vermont passed a marriage equality bill, Ben & Jerry's changed the name of its popular ice cream flavor Chubby Hubby to Hubby Hubby.

The New Yorkers for Marriage Equality campaign, which has appeared online and on New York City's Taxi TV, features video testimonials from high profile and everyday New Yorkers in order to encourage voters to contact lawmakers in support of the issue. HRC has released videos from Michael Strahan and Nicole Murphy, Broadway actors, Vanessa Williams, Anna Wintour, Larry King, Sean Avery, Julianna Margulies, Bill T. Jones, Sam Waterston, Christopher Meloni, Mario Batali, David Chang, Tom Colicchio, Lucy Liu, Bill Bratton and Rikki Klieman, U.S. senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former New York City mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins, Russell Simmons, Mark and Sunrise Ruffalo, John Slattery, Joan Rivers, Barbara Bush, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whoopi Goldberg, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, Fran Drescher, Moby, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, Julianne Moore, and Kenneth Cole.