Today is a landmark day for gay marriage. The Supreme Court struck down the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibited the Federal Government from accepting gay marriage and denied standing those opposed to the California lower’s court ruling overturning Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. The result: States are free to allow gay marriage (or not) and the Federal Government will recognize these marriages as they would any other (provided President Obama removes heterosexual marriage as the definition in so many provisions of Federal statutes, rules and regulations – something he has said he is committed to doing if the Supreme Court struck down DOMA, which it now has).
I have written several times about how important an issue this is for creative business (“Gay Marriage in New York” and, more recently, “A Changing World“) and I would just like to reiterate some of the points I made then and maybe add a few more.
Now is the time for creative businesses to step forward and shape culture. You will never convert the haters. There will forever be bigots, racists, sexists, us vs. thems. You can, however, shape those who can come to know better. You can teach that just because you are not that, because you cannot understand that, does not make you any better because of what you actually are or what you actually do understand. Such is the force beyond tolerance to acceptance of another’s path to joy.
As Jules Verne shaped our path to the moon, so too does every artist associated with gay weddings shape our path to a different reality. Battles might be won, but revelation is what happens when the fight is over. It takes time to release preconceptions of the permanence of what is.
I have empathy for those who believe marriage is between a man and woman, who are convicted that this is the nature of things. I no more doubt their faith and commitment to their worldview than I would my own. I do just hope that they can come to see those, like me, who believe the opposite as not intrinsically evil or, in fact, their enemy. The responsibility here lies with creative businesses and their work not to change long-held beliefs, but only soften them to the humanity of other.
The opposite of love is not hate; it is apathy. Intolerance, indifference and disdain is what underlies most of man’s inhumanity to man. We have arrived at the moment when we as a people and artists through their creative businesses specifically can continue to spur us, challenge everything in the face of apathy and, to paraphrase Seth Godin, not just to act differently but to be entirely and forever remarkable.
