Same-sex marriages to boost the economy?

Advertising Age says yes. According to this article, California should haul in some $683 million of additional revenue over the next year due to the new ruling that will allow same-sex marriage.

Hotels, retailers, florists, bands, photographers, caters etc. rake in a lot of money from the wedding industry this year, with the average cost of a wedding just over $28,000.

This makes perfect sense to us. I don't want to get political, but we have a crappy economy and a government (Dems and Republicans alike) that thought giving people $600 would stimulate the economy. All the while, treating people like equals and ignoring a law that is religion-based (separation of church and state) could be a huge help to stimulate our economy.

Frustrating.

This information comes from a study by the Williams Institute at the University of California.

"For over 20 years, analyses of other states' consideration of opening marriage to same-sex couples have argued that the first state or states to do so would experience a wave of increased tourism from out-of-state couples that would bring millions of additional dollars in revenue to state businesses," the report states. "In the spring of 2004, the issuance of gay-marriage licenses in Portland, Ore. and San Francisco provided support for these predictions. ... Furthermore, in anticipation of the availability of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts, cities in that state experienced a spike in hotel reservations, catering requests and other wedding-related orders."