In the episode “Be True,” FOX’s Empire judged the Supreme Court of the United States to be an archaic institution as it handed down the determination that gay marriage is legal in America.
During a conversation between a visiting artist, Jamal (Jussie Smollett), and his partner Michael (Rafael de la Fuente), the artist states that gay marriage rights are just a way of shackling gays, as heterosexual partners are, in marriage. Who wants to be tied up in such an archiac, traditional way?
Artist: Personally, I'm with Lucious on this one. Relationships are the death of creativity.
Jamal: Why would you say that? You mean to tell me you've never been in love?
Artist: Every day. And it's real. So why would I want to close that off to just one person? You know what destroys me? Same-sex marriage.
Jamal: Wait... Wait, what? What?
Artist: The biggest advancement of gay rights in American history, and it gets handed down from some archaic institution that doesn't even believe in natural human desire. I mean, look, I understand the impulse, but why are we so keen on being locked down in these heteronormative shackles?
Michael: Hetero-what?
Jamal: It's kind of like, um, when-when they ask, uh, "Who's-who's the man, who's the woman?"
Michael: Oh.
Men, women, monogamy, historical institutions, hey, who needs it anyway? Tradition is so yesterday.
