Driving Away Gays, Lesbians, Creativity and Difference

A Jan. 2 article by Stephanie Innes in Tucson's Daily Star tells the story of a same-sex couple who moved to California because Arizona does not recognize the two women's partnership, nor their relationship to their son.

Like most other states, Arizona law does not allow unmarried couples to do what's known as second-parent adoption - when the non-biological parent adopts a partner's child. Stepparents in heterosexual unions can adopt the children of their spouses in Arizona. Gay couples can be foster parents. And gay people, as long as they are single, can adopt. But couples like the Soterwoods, who can't legally marry here, can't both be parents of a child.

Full story here

Here's yet another example of how intolerance is not just morally misplaced, but economically stupid. It's been pointed out that gays and lesbians, on average, are more educated, earn more, and spend more. Notice the cities around the country that have initiated tourism programs specifically to attract G&L travelers. Why? Because they're a good market; they travel and spend. While some in the business community might be uncomfortable with these schemes, because even mentioning this particular target market appears to sanction the lifestyle, they generally go along because of the associated financial benefits. (Much the same way some states passed MLK Day primarily to avoid convention boycotts.) It's also no secret that the cities which are the most tolerant, say San Francisco, have the healthiest economies.

In his book The Flight of the Creative Class, urban planning guru Richard Florida describes how our country's increasing intolerance of otherness - other lifestyles, religions, ethnicities, nationalities, politics, or ideas - has a similar effect. Clearly, many people who intended to study, vacation, live, or work in America no longer want to. Either they don't feel welcome or they do not approve of the administration's warmongering and arrogant rejection of other worldviews. Others who may still want to travel here are forced to jump through so many hoops that they often give up. As a result, overseas graduate student applications have fallen precipitously, academic associations hosting international conferences are meeting elsewhere, researchers are moving their studies and taking their grants to more accepting countries, and travelers aren't bringing their wallets here.

As Florida sums up the problem:

The United States today faces its greatest competitive challenge of the past century, perhaps of its young life. The reason is basic: the key factor of the global economy is no longer goods, services, or flows of capital, but the competition for people. ... As a result, the real foreign threat to the American economy is not terrorism; it's that we may make creative and talented people stop wanting to come here.

In part, what has made America "America" has been a capacity to embrace new ideas, different perspectives, and creative approaches - not reject them. More than a few social observers have noted that the U.S. has a pretty lousy public school system, compared internationally, but among the best graduate schools and research programs. Immigrants are usually central players here, and their inventions and businesses often contribute significantly to the economy (can you say Google?).

At the international level we're turning away ideas that have historically contributed to our quality of life. At the local level, states are driving away caring parents with decent jobs who are considered valued "citizens" in all ways but one - their same-sex union. What connects all of this is fear and intolerance, which can be challenged with an economic argument, the very argument some opponents of immigration use to keep foreigners out.

Can we turn that argument on its head and challenge bigotry through economics? That's nothing new, of course, and I'm not sure it'll work. Logic hasn't had much effect so far with this bunch, and I'm sometimes afraid prejudice runs deeper than economic well-being, which says volumes about its hold on people. But Tucson has lost a good family, the U.S., through its actions and policies, is exacerbating the brain drain, and if you follow this through to its logical end ... Well, maybe that's the plan.