NY Jewelers Thrilled Over Marriage Equality -- Except the Anti-Gay Religious Ones

Jewelers, like many other business people in New York, are all too happy to see the start of marriage equality in their state -- unless, that is, their faith-based objections to gay and lesbian family parity outweigh their commercial instincts, Manhattan news source DNAInfo.com reported on July 22.

"Officials from the 47th Street Business Improvement District, which represents the hundreds of diamond and jewelry retailers along the stretch, gathered at the Diamond Exchange Thursday [July 21] to kick off a campaign to encourage same-sex couples to shop at their stores," the article said.

The Business Improvement District [BID] wooed starry-eyed couples about to enter into marriage with wedding cake. "We're happy to welcome the LGBT community today," said the head of the business group, Michael Grumet. "There's a new market for engagement rings for men and women that didn't exist before."

But there were other opinions to be found from some of the district's Orthodox Jewish businessmen.

"I don't approve of it," one such Orthodox merchant, who preferred to remain anonymous, told the publication.

Another called the idea of gay and lesbian families gaining legal parity "terrible" and "very bad," and declined to speak with the news source further.

For others who might not have embraced marriage equality, though, the pink dollars were easy enough with which to get cozy.

"I do not criticize, as long as they buy," said Alex Michaels, a "very religious" salesman, who also expressed the opinion that marriage equality runs contrary to biblical teaching. "Belief is different than business," Michaels told DNAinfo.

That split between the professional and the personal was echoed by another man, a 28-year-old devout Jewish merchant, who said that New York's new reality of marriage parity was "not the way it should be." Until it comes to associated business transactions, that is: "We see everyone like green," the merchant said. In that respect, "Everyone is equal," he added.

"The key is this: People are coming to buy," said another merchant, Landau Jacob, who has done business in the district for three decades. "It's not my business what they are," he said.

But even those who condemn same-sex families have not approached the BID to protest the group's push to market to a potentially lucrative new sector, the article noted.

"The most important thing here is everyone wants to sell and make money," jeweler and BID board president Harvey Nagin said. His pragmatism comes from deep roots: The article reported that Nagin's family has been in the jewelry business in the District for three-quarters of a century.

GLBT groups, meantime, are keeping close watch on who is welcoming to the newly recognized families, and who is not. The article said that Queer Rising's Natasha Dillon was of the mind that retailers with anti-gay views aren't the only game in town and shouldn't expect gay and lesbian families to be eager to buy from merchants who cling to faith-based bias.

But in the end, it all comes down to the nuts and bolts of business. The article cited various merchants who had tidbits of information useful to same-sex families headed to the altar: Expect to pay a little more than they would have a few years ago, because costs have gone up, but don't be afraid to negotiate for the best deal. Above all, go in armed with a little knowledge about what makes for a good precious stone, namely, "the 'Four C's': color, clarity, cut and carat size."

"What you want to buy is the whitest and the clearest quality, and the largest diamond you can afford," said Nagin. That said, he added, "It's not about the size, it's about the quality."

Though anti-gay activists have claimed in the past that there is little interest in long-term commitment and marriage among "hedonistic" gays and lesbians, the tidal swell of families eager to enter into legal wedlock has been a testament to the exact opposite, demonstrating how deep the yearning for just such commitment runs for same-sex couples. Officials were compelled to institute a lottery system for the new law's first day, because the response was so huge and so immediate.