Abstract
The issue of gay marriages has been discussed for quite a while from a number of perspectives; however, its economic aspects are rarely touched upon. In their article Firms balk at gay weddings, Nathan Koppel and Ashey Jones shed some light on the controversy surrounding the provision of services regarding the arrangement of same sex weddings from the perspective of the people who are against gay marriages. Among the key ethical dilemmas that are related to the issue in question, the conflict between religious beliefs and the necessity to provide the aforementioned services, the issue regarding the company’s needs v. its duty to comply with the rights of their staff, and the comparison of racial discrimination to same sex marriages profiling deserves mentioning.
Introduction: The Issue of Gay Marriages as the Major Dilemma of the XXI Century
Gay marriages are doubtlessly a hot-button issue in the XXI century. Weirdly enough, the controversy around gay marriages not only affects the aspects of people’s social lives, but also influences the business world, changing it at a much faster pace than its stakeholders may want to. As Nathan Koppel and Ashey Jones explain in their article Firms balk at gay weddings, because of the incongruity between the need to provide homosexual people with their indefeasible rights and the necessity to comply with the moral, religious and social standpoints of the people employed in the wedding related industries, a number of dilemmas arise.
Discrimination Issue and the Fifth Amendment: People’s Irrefutable Rights
On the one hand, Koppel and Jones’s mentioning the Fifth Amendment clearly works in favor of the sexual minorities and their right to be married, seeing how in a range of states, legal regulations “ban businesses from discriminating against people based on their sexual orientation” (Koppel & Jones, 2013, October 2, p. A3). On the other hand, making staff provide services to the people whose marriage is contrary to the staff’s beliefs can be seen as the staff’s rights infringement. This duty-based dilemma is clearly one of the hardest to solve. However, of all the arguments, the given one is clearly the weakest, seeing how in the choice between one’s right to be treated equally and one’s right to have personal preferences, the former is obviously the superior one.
Gay Marriage as a Concept Contrary to Some of the Existing Theologies
There is no denying that some of the existing religions prohibit the very idea of homosexuality, not to mention the discussions of homosexual relationships legitimacy or the possibility of gay marriage. Hence, the companies that provide the services related to wedding arrangement and marriage to both straight and homosexual people will clearly be out of favor among the people belonging to such religious confessions. Therefore, the SMEs (small and medium entrepreneurships) that dare to cross the line between providing facilities for straight and gay marriages will clearly be out of favor among more conservative clients and will lose a number of customers. Hence the dilemma between treating all couples equally and being financially successful arises. The specified conflict doubtlessly belongs to the outcome-based ethical theory dilemmas.
From Economics Perspective: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Applied to Business Owners
A product of an outcome-based ethical theory, the economic dilemma raised by Koppel and Jones and related to the needs of employees of wedding related companies and marriage related establishments, as well as homosexual couples, the inconsistency concerning Maslow’s hierarchy should also be born in mind. On the one hand, with gay marriages allowed, the employees who are against such weddings have their basic needs (i.e., the need for money to buy food, clothes, etc.) satisfied; however, their higher needs (i.e., the need to live in a morally and ethically pleasing environment (Adiele & Abraham, 2013, p. 143)) are not met. On the other hand, prohibiting homosexual marriages means denying gay people their right to create families, which can be regarded as one of the higher needs according to Maslow’s hierarchy. Finally, the wedding company owners also suffer from major financial losses because of the issue in question, with the possibility of clients filing a “discrimination complaint” (Koppel & Jones, 2013, October 2, p. A3).
Conclusion: In Search for a Compromise between Acknowledging the Rights and Freedoms of Gays and Straight People
The issue of homosexual marriage has clearly crossed the line between social and economic concerns; more to the point, it affects the present—day business world in a rather negative way, seeing how a number of employees refuse to do the job that is somehow related to homosexual marriages. The ethical dilemmas arising from the issue in question are obvious and very numerous, ranging from the unwillingness to infringe the rights of any of the parties involved, i.e., neither the clients, nor the employees, up to the loss of the clientele who may be sensitive to the company’s reputation. Therefore, a range of reasonable compromises must be made for the issue of gay marriages not to conflict with the success of the companies providing marriage and wedding related facilities.
Reference List
Adiele, E. E. & Abraham, N. M. (2013). Achievement of Abraham Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory among teachers: Implications for human resource management in the secondary school system in Rivers State. Journal of Curriculum and Teaching, 2(1), 140–144.
Koppel, N. & Jones, A. (2013). Firms balk at gay weddings. Wall Street Journal, A3..