Marriage

Scott Hardie | June 27, 2015
Thoughts on the Supreme Court legalizing same-sex marriage?

I had no doubt that the ruling would happen. There was no way that the four liberal justices wouldn't vote the way that they did, and Kennedy has always favored gay rights in his previous rulings, so I couldn't imagine him suddenly reversing course now. There was also no doubt that Scalia and Thomas would oppose it, nor that Scalia would issue his predictably fiery dissent like clockwork; is he ever not pissed off? But I thought that Roberts and possibly Alito might vote in favor of same-sex marriage, given how the issue has gained widespread acceptance so quickly, and given how their votes are likely to be perceived historically. I was surprised that it was only 5-4.

It's interesting to revisit TC's longest discussion and see how times have changed so quickly. Just a decade ago, we doubted that marriage equality would happen, or that the public would get behind it. Kudos to gay rights advocates for launching a hugely successful long-term strategy to make homosexuality visible and normal and accepted; it has reaped huge rewards at almost all levels of society.

Congratulations to my gay family and friends on having so much to celebrate, including one newly engaged couple.

Scott Hardie | June 28, 2015
I see corporations tweeting messages of support for the decision, like American Airlines and Tide and HGTV and countless others. Thank goodness they took such a clear stand! I was waiting on pins and needles to find out what an airline thought about same-sex marriage.

Look, we've had Twitter and Facebook for nearly a decade now. Once upon a time, the concept of social media was new, and it seemed like a good idea for corporations to be part of the "conversation" about news events. Now that some time has passed and we're used to the reality, can we please stop pretending that this is appropriate? Companies don't have opinions, and they're only going to say what a significant majority of people believe. Drop the pretense already.

Samir Mehta | July 2, 2015
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