When I was growing up, it cost a dime to mail a letter, people mailed letters, and banks gave stuff away to get you to open an account with them. Stuff like dishes. And toasters.

For those of you too young to remember, there’s an old joke that was designed to fend off right-wing claims that gays had to recruit young people to further our numbers. Essentially, it went, “When homosexuals convert heteros, we get toasters…”

The good news… (I know, bad, bad joke!) these days is that gays don’t convert straights to get toasters, we get married. And before we get married, we get engaged. And when we get engaged, we register at Crate and Barrel. Just like Jonathan Howard and Gregory Jones. They’re registered — and in Crate and Barrel’s “Ultimate Wedding Contest.” Not only are they entered in the contest — but they’re actually in first place!

Fifty couples were chosen by the public. In April, a panel, headed by “A-list planner extraordinaire Jo Gartin,” will chose the winner.

How great for the cause of marriage equality would it be if Jonathan and Gregory were to be chosen the winners? It would be AWESOME! (And, maybe it would force Daily Candy — Crate and Barrel’s co-sponsor — to redo their heterosexist illustration…)

Jonathan and Gregory write,

“Boy meets boy, boy falls for boy, and boys get engaged. The pure existence of our love is not always accepted. We had to deal with hatred from outsiders and support one another in recovery. Our love story involves the evolution of the meaning of love and the perseverance that allowed two people such as us to openly experience happiness. We knew that we were right for each other from the start, we knew that we would always be by one another’s sides and that as best friends we could truly experience our love openly.”

What a beautiful story. Take a look at their page, then skip over to their registry. Boy, do they love to cook! Trust me, when we get married, our registry is going to have to be more Equinox, less Williams-Sonoma. (Well, actually, it WILL need to be more Williams-Sonoma, since there’s not much cookware in the cabinets!)

Here’s the happy couple. Vote for them, and for marriage equality. Please?

Of course, you can also join their Facebook group!

Tagged as: coupling, Gay Marriage, registry, Same-Sex Marriage, ultimate wedding, wedding registries