Gay News

'Ian' and 'Steve': The new faces of family life at Ikea

Thursday, 4th December 2008

Written by Francesca Cookney

Editors of a Polish magazine are up arms about the latest IKEA catalogue which, among its images of modern family living, includes one scenario depicting the young and childless 'Ian' and 'Steve' under the heading "the family is... two sister souls".

The staunchly Catholic Fronda magazine “takes Catholicism seriously and tries to strengthen it through a bold choice of topics, authors, and arguments.” Apparently this means encouraging its readers not only to boycott the Swedish furniture giant but to write to the company, expressing their disgust. IKEA is promoting a lifestyle “which is not worthy of public promotion,” says editor-in-chief Grzegorz Upper.

“This [ad campaign] is connected with the strategy of accustoming people to homosexual relationships and then of legalising such relationships. This is done to establish their image in society as equal and then to legalise them.” The magazine even went as far as to provide a template for the letter, suggesting lines such as “Your company ... quite clearly aligns [Ian and Steve] as one of the acceptable models of the family. For me, your customer, this is not acceptable.”

Sadly it does appear to have worked. Already angry letters and emails have been flooding in but Polish IKEA rep Karolina Horoszczaková is unfazed.

“Homosexuality is one of the elements of life in modern society. Our company cannot ignore this,” she said, adding that the ad sent the message out loud and clear that, “Family life is changing ... Welcome to the new era.”