Who knew gay people could generate so much revenue?
A booming wedding industry could swell Maryland’s budget by millions if gays were permitted to wed, according to a university report released yesterday.
The study, by UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, estimates that spending on gay nuptials could top $280 million the first three years, generating $14 million in tax revenue during that time.
It’s not that allowing two men to marry is the right thing to do. It’s not that it will make no difference to straight marriages. It’s not that Massachusetts hasn’t been turned into a giganamous pillar of salt. Marriage equality would help line the states’ pockets!
On the upside, it might get Republicans on board.
Bombadil
Starting with Republican divorce lawyers.
Incertus (Brian)
There would certainly be a short term boom. I was living in San Francisco when Mayor Newsom legalized same-sex marriage for a period, and the lines of couples stretched around City Hall. Hell, just look at the short boom Massachusetts experienced with out-of-state couples coming in to get married. It would even out once you got past the initial crush of couples who’ve been waiting for years to be able to do it, but there would certainly be an economic push right at the beginning.
Jen
Well, I did! Aren’t they statistically wealthier than average, and don’t they statistically love things that are faaaabulous? With some of my gay friends, that wedding would be a showstopper.
Nim, ham hock of liberty
Since this is sort of related….I still don’t get the outrage about the “gay general” question at the GOP debate. The Shriekers aren’t denying that the general is actually gay, right? Or that he was an actual general? So…what, then?
It was a question about policy. If the question is loaded to make the answerer look bad, the candidate has the chance to respond immediately. Or are the GOP candidates not supposed to be asked embarassing questions?
Zifnab
True, the initial push would probably outweigh the long-term effect. But gay weddings just mean more weddings. People who would normally be consigned to perpetual bachelorhood are suddenly legally allowed to get hitched in a state where you won’t get dragged off the back of a moving truck for announcing the wrong type of nuptials.
I imagine that gay marriage will eventually go down like Roe v. Wade, where a handful of states legalize it initially and this creates a giant clusterfuck of legal problems as people move or change jobs or whatever. Finally, there will be a big lawsuit and the SCOTUS will be forced to announce that you can’t have a house divided like this. They’ll either outlaw gay marriage entirely or legalize it universally. And we’ll spend the next 40 years with crazy people whipped up into a firestorm over the horrible crime perpetuated against the Good Christians of America.
jcricket
Next time California has a Democratic governor, expect gay marriage to be legal there (the legislature has put a couple of bills to do just that in front of the Governator only to have them vetoed).
I predict 5 states legalizing gay marriage within 10 years, with maybe another 5 pushing “full civil unions”. Then it’s just a matter of time before another Supreme Court ruling.
dbrown
Gay men? There are more gay woman than men or is it that only men can be gay (see queen victoria nd english law)
Michael D.
Apparently, Hillary supporters aren’t allowed to ask questions of Republicans. My question didn’t get on, but it was along the same lines. Am I not allowed to ask a question because I will be supporting democrats? Apparently not according to Our Lady of Perpetual Outrage. I love that name!
But, you know? We’d all get our panties in a wad if a Republican so-called “plant” had posed a question to the Democrats. I think this is the most childish thing about politics, unfortunately, on both sides.
Softail
You should have seen the hotels scramble to offer wedding packages after Mayor Newsom started doing gay weddings here in San Francisco.
jcricket
I think Loving vs. Virginia is a far better analogy. 18 states still made it illegal for blacks/whites to marry when that case was decided.
And unlike Roe v. Wade it hasn’t caused some big firestorm of controversy or groundswell of anti-interracial-marriage activism.
Gay marriage will most likely be similar, because it’s pretty hard to picket every city hall or liberal church/synagogue that will eventually marry gay people.
Jen
You know what I think is different, though? If you look at the demographics associated with people’s opinions about gay marriage, it makes a tremendous difference how old you are. I think the number of people who see this as an equal/civil rights issue is just going to grow as the older folks die off, a lot like attitudes about interracial marriage have changed. I don’t know, just my theory.
Softail
Statistically here are more gay men than women. The women however, generally prefer to be called lesbians rather than gay women.
jcricket
Some Dems might get their panties, but do you think Fox News would be apologizing? Do you think the left-wing blogosphere would be in such a tizzy about it?
The whole “pox on both sides” thing wears thin when one side is far more guilty, and far savvier at turning outrage into actual changes in the media.
Bubblegum Tate
Yes, but their money is so…gay! Didn’t Jesus throw out the money changers? You know what that means, right? It was the people who turned straight money into gay money! They changed it from its God-given natural state to a disordered and totally gay state, and Jesus gave ’em the boot! Similarly, we must not allow our Godly, patriotic straight money to commingle with gay money or else our civilization is dooooooooomed!
[/wingnut]
Dreggas
Won’t happen and I’ll tell ya why…Prop 22. The voters approved it making marriage between a man and a woman, First that needs to be overturned by the voters then maybe something can happen. Believe me I am all for gay marriage but we shot ourselves in the foot here in Cal.
jcricket
Good theory and well supported by the facts. The opposition of gays and gay marriage is dropping precipitously as people (Gen Y, Gen X, even tail-end baby boomers) who have grown up knowing gay people, seeing them on TV, etc. become the dominant voting force.
What’s important to remember is that 18 states made it illegal for blacks & whites to marry when Loving V. Virginia was decided. Also, opposition to interracial marriage was still quite high, even in states where it was legal.
Minority rights shouldn’t be forced to “wait” until the majority is “comfortable” with it. That’s the whole “tyranny of the majority” thing we try to protect against in our Republic (i.e. not a direct democracy).
Jen
I’m sure some people would, but I would like to think that if I had a blog (well, I do, but people don’t really read it ’cause it’s mostly pictures of my kids), but let’s say I had a blog that a buncha commie liberals read, and I posted that I thought the questions were good and that the coverage was good, I’d like to think I would have a little bit of shame at going back later and saying, wait, no the questions weren’t good and the coverage wasn’t good because it turns out one of the questioners was a “plant”. I’d like to think I’d feel a cognitive disconnect about doing that.
jcricket
You seem to do that a lot in CA – the whole capping of property (and other) taxes seems to have put you in perpetual budget crisis mode.
Jen
Right, and it’s also that if it’s a Constitutionally protected equal right, then it doesn’t matter what public opinion on it is. Public opinion in Mississippi was pretty dang opposed to integrating the schools. Doesn’t matter. I do think the analogy to *Loving* is better than *Roe*.
John Cole
Sure, gay marriage might in the short term be profitable, but once they all get into committed relationships and no longer have to dress up and go out to find companionship, it is going to kill sales of Appletinis. Likewise, Gap stock will probably plummet.
On the upside, when I go out for a drink I won’t have to listen to Gloria Gaynor.
/bigot
Jen
But John, BABY Gap stock will skyrocket!
Jake
It’s all about money, ain’t a damn thing funny. /80’s flashback.
But I don’t really care. Is the idea of more money what it takes? Great. Fine. I’m surprised the Rapturists haven’t hopped on board because they hope ghey marriage will bring on the end times.
Oh, sorry. I keep thinking they really believe the crap they gibber about.
Jake
Yep. Especially if you read the VA court decision in which the judge declares that God didn’t intend for people of different races to intermingle.
Sound familiar?
Jen
Yeah, I got one a them law degrees. I believe the judge said he put the different races on different continents for a reason.
Bombadil
Heh. But you can at least try to keep the Appletini market alive.
Dreggas
Don’t get me started, it’s one reason I am tired of this state.
RSA
Not to mention all the money flowing from gay couples to the business community: wedding planners, floral designers, wedding gown designers, photographers, . . . Hey, wait a minute! :-)
Michael D.
You need to brush up on your ghey, John,
It’s Abercrombie & Fitch. Only poor gays shop at Gap.
Cindrella Ferret
Hey! Lets call the proposed marriage equality legislation The Tax Reduction and Marriage Enhancement Act of 2007. That would pass muster with the more socially conservative folks. And since when is it the Governments job to do the right thing? They’ve been doing the Right Thing since 1995, and you know how well that’s been working for us.
Tom
“On the upside, when I go out for a drink I won’t have to listen to Gloria Gaynor.”
You wouldn’t have to do that now if you’d drink in gay bars instead of gay nursing homes.
Jake
The judge then packed his bags and returned to Europe because he no longer wished to interfere with God’s arrangement.
Jen
That’s pretty funny. I wonder what the difference between the yellow and the malay race is. Malay is the only one that isn’t a color. Did he make up that list, did they teach him that in Sunday school, is it part of the Apocrypha, what the heck is it?
jenniebee
Didn’t The Simpsons do an episode with this premise three years ago?
jcricket
Where do the Republican gays shop then? Brooks Brothers? Abercrombie & Self-Loathing?
Jamey
Just THINK of the booming business the International Male catalog will do in wedding night trusseau and wedding registry.
carpeicthus
As a wedding photographer, I STRONGLY support allowing people with a great amount of disposable income to marry.
The Other Steve
I would like to announce the opening of Steve’s Gay Marriage Emporium. We offer wedding packages starting at only $5,000.
I want me a piece of that $280 million, biotch!
BIRDZILLA
Anyone knows any real legal wedding is between one man and one woman and if the liberal wussietards dont like it then they can GO TAKE A HIKE
Anne Laurie
It’s not that Massachusetts hasn’t been turned into a giganamous pillar of salt…
Actually, what’s wadded the panties of a lot of our Commonwealth’s most outspoken bigots, including Willard “Mitt” Romney hisownself, is that the longer gay marriages are legal, the higher the percentage of the general public who tell pollsters that they’re okay with gay marriage. Because, apparently, once Joe Sixpak discovers that what all those homosexual romantics (or activists) get to do legally has absolutely no effect on issues of vital importance like the Red Sox/Patriots/Celtics/Whateverthehockeyteamiscalled, or the latest revelations of misfeaseance on the Big Dig, or congestion on Storrow Drive… Joe is perfectly happy to let Jim & Jon Sixpakabs act just like all the rest of us schlubs. And losing one of their favorite boogeymen is just intolerable to the Talibangelicals!
Z
I can absolutely believe that gay weddings would prop up the states bottom line. But here’s the thing, it is happening anyway. There are ministers who do perform gay weddings and couples that have them despite the law. My girlfriend and I are having our wedding next fall. And in the conservative mid-west, we have had no problem finding caterers and a venue. As long as our money is green…
Z
I just realized that, while no one will realize it because it is an old thread, this is the first gay wedding announcement on John’s site. This is a liberal blog, indeed.
PhoenixRising
unlike Roe v. Wade it hasn’t caused some big firestorm of controversy or groundswell of anti-interracial-marriage activism.
Gay marriage will most likely be similar, because it’s pretty hard to picket every city hall or liberal church/synagogue that will eventually marry gay people.
Yeah, the big difference between same-sex marriage and abortion is that abortion is an embarrassing right to exercise. Whereas when you’re getting hitched, you want a big-ass party over it. So gay couples can’t be shamed into pretending they comply with the foaming mouth bigots the way the one on four women who have had an abortion can…
Also, demographic momentum.