2012-09-12
Explanation
This comic draws a pointed analogy between dismissing marriage equality as "just symbolic" and the historical injustice of racial segregation on buses. In the first panel, two men sit together on a bus. One says "I don'''t see why people get so agitated about gay marriage. It'''s just symbolic. Those people can live together already." The other man enthusiastically agrees: "Exactly!"
In the second panel, a bus driver tells the man who said "Exactly!" that he cannot ride in the front of the bus because "it'''s not for people like you." The man is shocked: "WHAT?!" The driver responds: "Quit complaining. Back of the bus gets you to the same stops." The punchline works by applying the man'''s own logic back to him. He argued that marriage equality is unnecessary because same-sex couples already have the practical benefits of living together, so the symbolic distinction does not matter. The bus driver then uses identical reasoning to justify segregation: the back of the bus gets you to the same destination, so why complain about where you sit?
The comic exposes the flaw in the "it'''s just symbolic" argument by showing that "separate but equal" treatment is inherently discriminatory, regardless of whether the practical outcome appears the same. The votey panel shows the man from the bus smiling and saying "See what I did there?" -- breaking the fourth wall to acknowledge the heavy-handedness of the analogy, a self-aware nod from Weinersmith about the comic'''s lack of subtlety.