Wineries in Support of Gay Marriage

While you're waiting for the Supreme Court to issue its ruling on the gay marriage cases — it'll probably be around the end of June, so plan your cautiously optimistic celebrations accordingly — there are lots of things you can do. Like, say, pick up a few bottles of wine for your next Hollywood Bowl outing. Maybe a few bottles of wine explicitly dedicated to the cause: Per the Associated Press, a number of wineries are expressly supporting gay marriage, some going as far as putting their position on the matter right on the label.

The AP highlights four wineries in particular: Same Sex Meritage (slogan: “Eat, Drink and Be Married”) offers a red table wine; Egalite sells a French sparkling wine; Stand Tall Wine Co. makes a Pinot noir; and Barefoot Wine & Bubbly has a variety of red and white wines. All wineries feature some sort charitable component; Same Sex Meritage, for instance, donates $1 of every bottle sold to Freedom to Marry, and Stand Tall Wines donates 1% of its sales to the Napa LBGTQ Project.

The intersection of wine and liberalism seems to make sense, especially here in California, which has an abundance of both wineries and liberals. As the AP points out, “For Sonoma and Napa Valley producers, the LGBT market is a particularly good fit since the wine regions are close to San Francisco and its substantial gay population.”

'Course, if all of this sounds just a bit gimmicky, it's probably because some of it may very well be. But, even if you're ambivalent about the institution of marriage in the first place, there are worse things than buying wine from companies that support the notion of equality. Or, as Stand Tall Wine Co. bluntly says on its website: “The queer community can feel good about supporting a gay business and helping their fellow queers. The rest of you can assuage your liberal guilt by supporting a small business and helping others. And,” it adds, “All of you get to enjoy great wine!” Exactly.

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