Marriage Equality Works

Despite the tough economic times, no one’s talking about profiting from the legalization of same-sex weddings. Perhaps they should be.

By Rachel F. Elson
Jun 3, 2009 | Updated: 7:08 p.m. ET Jun 3, 2009

The phones started ringing at the Timberholm Inn in Stowe, Vt., in April, as soon as lawmakers voted to override a gubernatorial veto and allow same-sex marriage in the state. "It doesn’t go into effect till Sept. 1, but people are thinking ahead," says the inn’s co-owner, Susan Barnes. "We’ve got two same-sex weddings booked for October." Those bookings are good news for Barnes, who says the gay-friendly inn takes in a "couple of thousand" dollars with every wedding it hosts. And they are part of the reason some same-sex-wedding advocates are now pointing out a new legalization angle: the economic payoff.

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Mark Schuster and Jeffrey Webb are immigrants of a different sort.

So are Lynn Adler and Paige Warren.

The gay American couples resettled in Massachusetts, where they are treated — legally and socially — like any other married folks.

They moved in part because they wanted their children to grow up in a welcoming environment.

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By Scott Malone
Thu Jun 4, 2009 4:57pm EDT

BOSTON (Reuters) - The expansion of legal gay marriage across New England could deliver an economic windfall by attracting a youthful "creative class" of workers to a region with an aging population.

In the past year, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine have joined Massachusetts, which in 2004 became the first U.S. state to allow same-sex weddings, in blessing gay and lesbian weddings.

That makes the region the first in the United States where same-sex couples can move from one state to another while retaining marriage benefits.

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