Yes, legalizing same sex marriage is clearly the right thing to do from a civil rights standpoint. But a quick statistical tidbit from New York, whose legislature recently approved gay marriage, shows a surprising argument in favor of allowing marriage for all: It pumps lots of money into the state economy.
New York City’s Economic Development Corporation calculates that the new gay marriages will make not only some happy couples, but $423 million for the city over the next three years, thanks to all the spending that surrounds weddings. That estimate is based on the assumption that half of New York City’s 21,949 same-sex couples who live together will decide to get married.
According to the American Communities Survey, Portland is home to 6,054 same-sex couples who live together (that’s 2,436 gay couples and 3,618 lesbian ones, if you’re curious). Imagine if we pass a state constitutional amendment in 2012 allowing gay marriage and a third of those couples decide to get married. With the average wedding nationwide costing $24,000, those same-sex marriages would generate $48 million in economic activity for the city—that’s a helluva lot of florists, chefs, classic rock DJs and other good ol’ American jobs.
In all other ways, I think the fact that we spend $24,000 per wedding is a waste. But, hey, all that money spent on horse drawn carriages and fancy shoes bolsters the state economy. If we need to rely on the gays to help us marry our way out of recession, I say: Extravagant wedding dresses for all!
What price must we pay for moral degeneracy?!?
The average wedding does not cost $24,000. I’ll agree that the wedding-industrial complex floats numbers like that on occasion.
The kind of normal people who have normal weddings don’t report their figures to the Wedding Report. Only retards who care about lavish weddings do.
$24,000 or $29,000 or whatever number like that should be called “The Average Cost of a Wedding (for Assholes).”
@CC: Just b/c you’re hoi polloi doesn’t mean that those of us in the upper-crust don’t demand the very best in our hetero-only life-partner bonding ceremonies. The caterers tried to slip Osetra caviar onto the buffet instead of the agreed upon beluga. They really thought I wouldn’t notice. I beat that urchin to within an inch of his life with my Hermes riding crop. What were we saying about sodomites?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1187905185…
As of 2007, the median (which is a better indicator) of the studies that produce those 25K-30K averages is actually $15K.
That’s 15K for newlyweds contacted by The Knot or subscribers to bridal magazines. That means tons of normal people are left out.
Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the true median were under 10K.
Assuming a 9K median, your $48M figure becomes $18.1M.
Therefore, gay marriage is wrong.
I know that 24k figure sounds remarkably high, but on the other hand, queer couples that have been together for years might have more money to spend on a wedding than the average broke twenty-something portland newlyweds.
@ ambrown, I don’t have any reason to doubt that, but I have every reason to doubt that the $25-$30K number probably takes into account nearly zero queer wedding costs, so it’s even more unreliable when used to make assumptions about queer wedding spending, which certainly doesn’t have the historical ridiculous excess baggage that hetero marriage has piled up over recent years.
I bought my first Ferrari from a guy in New York – he was selling it because his wedding was going to run into six figures.
@Reymont: Ick. You bought used? I guess if you call it ‘vintage’ you can explain it away. But still. I hope you’ve moved onto something nice, like a Maybach or something.
As one half of a queer couple that has been together “for years,” I can report that my big gay Canadian wedding cost us about $5,000. And while I’m looking forward to someday being legally married in Oregon, I really doubt we’ll have a second wedding (we now have a mortgage and a kid to put that $ toward). Fifty percent of couples *might* get married, but I really doubt they’ll all have weddings, let alone big schmancy ones.
The Gays are obviously more likely to have FABULOUS weddings. Of the $24,000 kind. Duh.
I got gay fake-married last year and we spent about two grand. SORRY, OREGON ECONOMY, but we are not men of the fabulous variety. We’re sports-loving, rock-listening, beer drinkers who just wanted a cheap outdoor barbecue with minimal obligatory ceremony.
that NY archy bishop is drooling all over his bingo card at all that wedding money his church ain’t gonna git!!!
“Forget that marriage is a basic right, but give us the right to marry because we’ll spend money with your, your family member’s or your friend’s business or employer.”
How can people even advance this argument? It makes me so sick. Do we criminalize murder because it has an adverse impact on the economy? We as a people allow the government to exist for the welfare of all of us, not simply to maximize economic activity.
@ natureboy, come and sit on my knee for a moment.
Now, natureboy, you and I know gay marriage is the right thing to do, from a civil rights standpoint, just like Sarah said in the very first sentence of her post.
However, some people don’t agree with that position. The answer to changing those people’s mind’s isn’t to just repeat our One Truth argument over and over until they concede because that One Truth argument is somehow the only one we’re morally allowed to make.
Persuasion isn’t about logically infallible arguments, it’s about making the right arguments for the situation, which includes even lil’ side support arguments that help nudge opponents back from the cliffs they’ve walked out on. It’s a lot easier to get people to change positions if you can allow them to do so without admitting outright that they were wrong to begin with. This particular argument lets people say, “well if it’s good for jobs and the economy, then fuck it, let ’em get married.”
Run along now, natureboy, you’ve got your earnestness all over my leg.
Unless they fix ORS 107 the lawyer bill for the first few “My Big Gay Divorce” will be $48 million. I think everyone spent about $2million for legal advise on this topic last time Oregon Gay Marriage was legal.
@Graham – Haha! It was the last year they made them with carburetors. Does that count as ‘vintage?’ Boat Cop would have loved it!