At Ben & Jerry’s we’ve been saying “Love who you love” for a while now. And on June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court finally agreed with us! As we look forward to what LGBT equality means beyond marriage equality, we’re also taking a look back at the long and winding road of LGBT history in the United States. From pop culture to legislation and Hollywood to riots, LGBT history is rich with challenges and triumphs.

In 1950, a Senate report titled “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government” stated that since homosexuality was a mental illness, anyone who was gay posed a security risk to the nation. Over 4,380 gay men and women were discharged from the military and around 500 were fired from their government jobs. That purging came to be known as “The Lavender Scare”.

In the early morning hours of June 28, 1967, a raid of the popular gay bar the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village sparked the infamous Stonewall Riots. The bar had been a frequent target of raids by police who were trying to make the neighborhood free of “sexual deviants”. Angry gay patrons had had enough and clashed with police in the streets. The three-day riots have been credited with reigniting the modern LGBT rights movement.

On December 15, 1973, the board of the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

On November 8, 1977, Harvey Milk won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was responsible for introducing a gay rights ordinance protecting gays and lesbians from being fired from their jobs. He also led a successful campaign against Proposition 6, an initiative forbidding homosexual teachers.

On October 14, 1979, an estimated 75,000 people participated in the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. LGBT people and straight allies demanded equal civil rights and urged the passage of protective civil rights legislature.

On July 3, 1981, The New York Times printed the first story of a rare pneumonia and skin cancer found in 41 gay men in New York and California. The CDC initially referred to the disease as GRID, Gay Related Immune Deficiency. When the symptoms were found outside the gay community, Bruce Voeller, biologist and founder of the National Gay Task Force, successfully lobbied to change the name of the disease to AIDS.

In 1987, AIDS advocacy group ACT UP (The AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) formed in response to the devastating affects the disease had on the gay community in New York. The group held demonstrations against pharmaceutical companies profiteering from AIDS-related drugs, as well as the lack of AIDS policies protecting patients from outrageous prescription prices.

Hollywood brought gay issues and homophobia to the big screen in the movie Philadelphia. The AIDS drama won Tom Hanks his first Best Actor Oscar, and in his memorable acceptance speech he remarked, “The streets of Heaven are too crowded with angels. We know their names. They number a thousand for each of the red ribbons we wear here tonight.”

In 1997, Ellen DeGeneres came out on her popular television show and on that now-famous TIME magazine cover, declaring “Yep, I’m Gay”. Will & Grace premiered a year later and went on to be the first long-running gay sitcom, winning 16 Emmy Awards.

On April 26, 2000, Vermont became the first state in the U.S. to legalize civil unions and registered partnerships between same-sex couples.

On May 18, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage. The court finds the prohibition of gay marriage unconstitutional because it denies dignity and equality of all individuals.

On October 28, 2009, The Matthew Shepard Act is passed by Congress and signed into law by President Obama. The measure expands the 1969 U.S. Federal Hate Crime Law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability.

On April 6, 2009, Vermont legalizes gay marriage. Ben & Jerry’s celebrates by renaming Chubby Hubby to Hubby Hubby!

On December 18, 2010, the U.S. Senate votes 65-31 to repeal the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the U.S. Military.

On June 26, 2015 The United States Supreme Court declares same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states.

We’ve come a long way, America. And whether you’re a member of the LGBT community or an ally, that progress is something to be proud of. At Ben & Jerry’s, we’re proud to have been a part of this movement since our earliest days, and we don’t plan on leaving it anytime soon. Join us in continuing to support LGBT equality by checking out what our friends at the Human Rights Campaign are up to.

We know you’ve heard of climate change, but what about climate justice? The concept of climate justice asks us to pay close attention to who’s reaping the benefits of a fossil fuel-powered lifestyle and who’s bearing the brunt of the impacts. Because while climate change threatens everyone, communities of color with few financial resources are disproportionately affected.

The non-profit organization Green For All is on the forefront of climate justice activism. Their goal is to make sure everyone has a voice in the climate movement, including bringing jobs and opportunity to those communities.

Here are six ways Green For All is making climate justice happen:

Leaders who are bringing new ideas from new perspectives are crucial. When Green for All’s founder Van Jones released his book, The Green Collar Economy in October 2008, it shot onto The New York Times’ Bestseller List—the first environmental book by an African-American author to do so. The book’s popularity helped spur the growing demand for green jobs. It also spurred demand for Jones—by March of 2008, President Obama had tapped Green For All’s leader to serve as Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Green The Church, its organizers say, “aims to bring the benefits of sustainability directly to black communities.” It includes a partnership between Green For All and the U.S. Green Building Council to work with churches on renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. It also seeks to “tap into the power of the African-American church as a moral leader and a force for social change,” through education and outreach to millions of black churchgoers across the country.

When it comes to climate change and pollution, people of color and low-income neighborhoods are often the hardest hit. Sixty-eight percent of African Americans live within 30 minutes of a polluting coal plant and one in six black kids suffers from asthma. The Obama administration is working to clean up our air and fight climate change through measures like the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan. But big polluting industries are waging a war on clean air safeguards and that’s definitely not cool. Green For All is standing up to them.

People of color and low-income folks stand to gain tremendously from efforts to fight pollution. If carbon-cutting initiatives are handled thoughtfully, they can right the ship—creating jobs, economic opportunity, and stability in communities that have been beaten down by years of racism, divestment and poverty.

Over the years, Green For All has played a key part in imagining and enacting policies that spur the growth of clean energy and fight pollution. One of Green For All’s first policy victories was helping to pass the Green Jobs Act, which authorized $125 million per year for the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Worker Training Program. Another victory came in 2009, when Congress passed President Obama’s $787 billion Recovery Act that included many initiatives that Green For All had been pushing for—including investments in weatherization, green job training and clean energy.

Through Green For All’s state and local initiatives, they’ve helped launch thriving green businesses and social ventures. For example, Green For All partnered with the City of Portland, Oregon to develop and launch Clean Energy Works, a home energy retrofitting program designed to create quality jobs, social equity and business growth while improving homes and reducing carbon emissions. To date, the program has upgraded more than 3,500 homes, employed more than 1,400 workers and generated more than $62 million in local economic development—all while achieving targets for workforce and contractor diversity.

We’re big fans of Green For All and it’s probably pretty easy to see why. To learn more about their climate justice initiatives and to support Green For All’s mission, head on over to http://www.greenforall.org/.

Pretty much everyone knows that in the US, big elections mean big bucks. In the first half of 2015, $400 million had already been raised—with Election Day still over a year away! But some folks might be surprised to find out how few people are responsible for all of the money that gets poured into campaigns. We have Citizens United to “thank” for this out-of-whack influence in our elections.

Before the January 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court case, laws prevented corporations and unions from buying media that promoted or criticized any candidate prior to Election Day. After the Citizens United ruling? All bets were off.

Political spending essentially became a First Amendment right, unleashing Super PACS that are now allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money from unions, corporations, and wealthy individuals and families. If that sounds unfair to the vast majority of voters who only have their one vote to influence the outcome of elections, it’s because it is unfair.

It’s estimated that $5 billion will be spent during the 2016 election cycle—that’s billion with a B! But what’s even more surprising is that out of approximately 120 million households in the United States, just 158 provided nearly half of the money for the start of the 2016 campaign. Nope, not a typo. That’s a small group of people with a whole lot of influence.

And it’s not just about big money, it’s also about the agendas that go along with those hefty donations. 130 of those 158 families are backing Republican candidates who have indicated that they’ll cut taxes on income and inheritances as well as pare back regulatory action. This is about protection of one’s own wealth versus creating and maintaining a system where people from all walks of life can prosper.

These big money donors are mostly white, older and male, in contrast with a country that’s increasingly young, multicultural and gender-balanced. That isn’t the recipe for creating a government that accurately reflects the people it governs.

On the surface, it might just seem like “Hey, that’s how the system works.” People who have a lot of money donate it to the candidate they like. That’s capitalism. What’s the big deal? Well, it might be capitalism but it’s not democracy.

That avalanche of money pressures political parties or specific candidates to makes a donor’s causes their own. And more money means more visibility in the media. And the more visible a candidate and their issues are, the more interest they attract. And the more interest, the more votes. This all has a long-term impact on future legislation and regulatory actions on specific industries—and that’s just for starters.

For example, the majority of those families (81 total) made their fortunes in finance and energy—so what do you think they want in exchange for those big donations? Big, big influence on how their industries are treated.

We think people are more important than money, and that everyone deserves an equal voice in our political system. Let’s get the dough out of politics, folks!

What’s better than coming up with one ice cream flavor with Jimmy Fallon? Coming up with two!

Inspired by his time as the host of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the first flavor we collaborated with the funny man on was Late Night Snack. You’d be hard pressed to forget this one, with its salty caramel swirl and fudge covered potato chips.

When we found out that Jimmy was moving to a new show, we thought, “Aw, shucks! Looks like that flavor is all done.” But then we thought, “Sounds like an opportunity to make a NEW flavor!” Because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that when one pint closes, another one opens, revealing the opportunity within.

The Ben & Jerry’s team worked with Jimmy directly to develop this flavor collaboration. “We had some flavor profiles we were working on that we sent him to try. There was a lot of discussion around what made sense ingredient-wise that we could tie to either Jimmy, the show, New York City, and so on,” the team remembers. “We brainstormed around names at the same time. It just had to be the right combination. A flavor profile with a lot going on, and a name that made sense for Jimmy and his new gig.”

Once they decided on the name The Tonight Dough, the Ben & Jerry’s team sent three flavor profiles with different ice cream bases and cookie dough combinations for Jimmy to choose from. And the rest, as they say, is make-your-mouth-and-belly-really-happy history.

The winning recipe combines chocolate and caramel ice creams with chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter cookie dough and a crunchy chocolate cookie swirl for an extra-chunky concoction that would knock the socks off your freezer, that is if freezers wore socks.

The Tonight Dough has been one of our most popular new flavors since it launched earlier this year. And although people might dig in because they want to try Jimmy’s new flavor, they keep coming back for more because, well, how could they not?!

But the success of The Tonight Dough is even sweeter because it benefits an organization with a serious and fun mission—SeriousFun Children’s Network.

Jimmy has worked with this organization for a long time. It was founded by Paul Newman in 1988 with the mission of creating opportunities for children with serious illnesses to reach beyond illness and discover joy, confidence and a new world of possibilities through a range of summer camps and other programs – all at no cost to families.

But maybe we should finally let Jimmy do the talking here?

“I’m not overhyping, I’m not overselling – we’ve made the best ice cream ever created,” Jimmy Fallon said. “It’s so insanely good and I’m just happy to be associated with it. And the proceeds go to a great charity.”

Get some tonight! The Tonight Dough is available in pints or at your local Scoop Shop!