What is this yellow and blue logo?

March 5, 2004 10:22 AM

Inspired by COBRA!'s question: I've seen a sticker on cars all around Seattle ever since I moved here but have never been able to figure out what it means. It has no text and doesn't seem to be connected to any ad campaign. It is a yellow equals sign superimposed on a purplish blue square. At first I thought it might be somehow related to the equal housing opportunity logo but it is kind of hard to imagine hundreds of people all over the city expressing their enthusiasm for HUD policy...
posted by Mars Saxman to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

I think it's for the Human Rights Campaign. Someone gave me a sticker like that at Sundance this year.
posted by pointbeing at 10:31 AM on March 5, 2004

Human Rights Campaign
posted by anathema at 10:32 AM on March 5, 2004

Speculation on my part but I've always thought it was the abbreviated form of the "Action = Life, Silence = Death" sticker that people use to promote AIDS awareness.
posted by scarabic at 10:34 AM on March 5, 2004

Is this it?
posted by pointbeing at 10:34 AM on March 5, 2004

Response by poster: Ahh, that's it. Thanks. Mystery solved!
posted by Mars Saxman at 10:39 AM on March 5, 2004

If it's the "Human Rights Campaign," why are they only working for equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people?
posted by kindall at 11:31 AM on March 5, 2004

Because they are an organization working for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered issues?
posted by agregoli at 11:54 AM on March 5, 2004

Well, then why do they call themselves the "Human Rights Campaign"? I would expect such an organization to have a wee bit wider focus.
posted by kindall at 1:27 PM on March 5, 2004

You're looking for something more direct, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, kindall? I always thought that particular organization's title just had 0.0% bullshit about it.

I dunno what to say about HRC. I see your point, but perhaps the title pertains to the rights they are seeking, not the population they are serving. It's a wobbly point at best, but what can you do?
posted by scarabic at 2:00 PM on March 5, 2004

Human Rights Campaign was started back in the '80s (when it was first called Human Rights Campaign Fund). Back then, many gay rights groups used names that avoided having words like "gay" or "lesbian" in them. That made fundraising easier, and also made it easier to deal with closeted people--envelopes coming in the mail from groups with innocuous, liberal-sounding names were less likely to draw suspicion. Other examples include the legal activist group "Lambda Legal," and the wonderfully cryptic Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom.

Arguably, there isn't much advantage anymore to this game of hide-the-agenda. In recent years there's been some discussion about whether groups with ambiguous names should change them to embrace being gay or lesbian. But old, longstanding groups like HRC now have such a brand name in some quarters that it would be dumb to change.
posted by profwhat at 5:34 AM on March 6, 2004