The episode was inspired by the controversy that arose from California Proposition 8 in the United States during 2008 and was written by Michael Rowe [REF].
According to Cohen, the writing team's approach when using pop culture references as an episode's main subject is to modify them into futuristic versions to avoid being dated,[REF] noting that being a science fiction show, "some topics are probably not going to be around by the time the show airs."[REF]