State sees economics of gay marriage

Morality, personal liberty, and constitutional law have been the usual battlegrounds in the fight over gay marriage. Now Governor Deval Patrick's administration is injecting something a bit more pedestrian to the debate: economic development.

A study conducted for the state's Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development predicts that an economic boomlet in hotel bookings, banquets, and wedding cakes would result from repealing a 1913 state law that prevents gay and lesbian couples from most other states from marrying in Massachusetts.

Consider these numbers: An estimated 32,200 same-sex couples from elsewhere would travel to the state to get married over the next three years. That would pump $111 million into the economy and yield another $5 million in marriage license fees and sales and occupancy taxes.

Those estimates were produced by the Williams Institute, a nonprofit organization at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law that studies policies, including economic issues, relating to sexual orientation.

The estimates were touted by advocates yesterday on the eve of an expected vote on a Senate bill that would repeal the 1913 law.

"There will be couples who will throw huge weddings in Massachusetts, and there will be couples who just pop into the state, get their license, and leave," said R. Bradley Spears, executive director of the Williams Institute.

Senator Dianne Wilkerson, who is championing the issue in the state Senate, said she is "extremely optimistic" that the repeal bill will pass today and proceed to the House, where advocates are also optimistic about approval. Wilkerson said she is not expecting a heated debate, despite the volatility of the gay marriage issue on Beacon Hill for the last several years.

State sees economics of gay marriage
Boston Globe, United States