Rolling Out the Welcome Mat to Gay Marriage
Connecticut Post
By Marian Gail Brown
November 22, 2008

With same sex marriage now legal in Connecticut, combined with the buying power these couples possess and the scenic New England backdrop, it looks like a no brainer that the Constitution State needs to roll out the rainbow carpet.

The buying power of the gay and lesbian market is projected at $712 billion this year, according to Witeck-Combs Communications' annual survey of gay consumers. And the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School estimates that despite the fact that the state has only 7,386 same-sex couples, gay marriages could pump anywhere from $3 million to $13 million into Connecticut's economy within the next three years. That's because Connecticut has no residency requirement for marriage licences. Couples can hail from anywhere. Beside Connecticut, Massachusetts is the only other state where gay couples can wed, now that California has passed Proposition 8. And until July 2008, Massachusetts, unlike Connecticut, required couples to live in the Commonwealth. And while New York State does not allow gay marriages, it has announced that it will accept a same-sex marriage conducted under valid law in another state. With Connecticut being closer to the New York metro area than Massachusetts, a number of wedding planners see the shorter drive, travel time as an incentive to wed here, rather than there.

"Connecticut is a progressive state and a place where people are open minded and accepting of others," said Ron Johnson, co-owner of Executive Advertisement Quantcast Chef in Trumbull and Stratford, who anticipates an uptick in business because of Connecticut Supreme Court's same sex marriage decision that took effect Wednesday.

Executive Chef is a 17 year-old catering company that has arranged hundreds of weddings and other formal affairs, and has several gay wedding receptions already booked.

If Connecticut tourism and economic development agencies play their cards right, Johnson says, they have a chance to market the state in new, more inviting ways that show homosexuals are valued and accepted. "In the same way that heterosexual people think about going to Vegas to get married or Tijuana to get divorced, Connecticut could position itself as a mecca for gay marriage," Johnson said. "Sooner or later, it seems to me, that this is the way the rest of the country is going to go anyway, and we'll find much more important things to do that poking our noses into the private lives of people this way."

The state Department of Public Health expects "an initial surge in the number of same-sex marriages for the next few months," William Gerrish, a DPH spokesman, said, adding that it cost the state $26,000 to reword its marriage licenses and distribute them to the state's 169 town clerks. In the first few days the new document was available, about 70 gay couples completed them. A Connecticut marriage license is valid for 65 days from the time a couple takes one and a clergy member or justice of the peace officiates the ceremony.

In the first six months that California permitted same-sex marriages, close to 18,000 gay couples wed. Similarly situated couples now have no West Coast state in which to wed. "Connecticut could look quite inviting to these couples," Wendy Marks, a University of California at Riverside professor of economics, said. "A lot of these people will turn to either Connecticut or Massachusetts to get married," Marks said.

"The more welcoming Connecticut is to them, the more cultural acceptance it exhibits, the more it stresses that it protects civil rights and ensures that gays aren't harassed, this group may come to view Connecticut as a place to move to," Marks said. "Over the long haul, attracting more gay couples to wed in Connecticut might encourage them to think of Connecticut as place they'd want to relocate to. If that happens, what Connecticut would see would be an infusing of more highly-skilled, highly-educated professionals in its workforce."

Bob Heffernan, executive director of the Connecticut Florists Association in Monroe, sees gay marriage as boon to the state's florists.

"When civil unions came into law in Connecticut, the florists across the state did a fair amount of business. We had floral arrangers from Vermont and Massachusetts conduct workshops on some of the new mores and customs associated with gay weddings," Heffernan said. "It remains to be seen how many more marriages will take place in Connecticut because of this court decision, but what we're doing is urging our members to go after this market and tell everyone that they welcome their business and want to help make their day as special as it can be."

State Department of Revenue Service statistics show that Connecticut's 531 florists grossed $87.7 million in floral sales last year. In 2006, DRS figures show that 599 florists had gross sales of $90.6 million. Typically, 10 percent of the state's floral sales come from weddings, from table arrangements to bouquets and boutonnieres for the bridal party.

Heffernan has a civil union with his long-time partner. Their ceremony was conducted on Dec. 3, 2005, just two months after the state's civil union law took effect, at the couple's Litchfield County home. Thirty-five relatives attended.

"We had no idea how big it would be, and who would attend. We put the word out to our relatives. We called them. We didn't mail a single invitation. All of the inviting got done over the phone," he said. "And every single person we invited showed. We were amazed about all of the love and support we had. It was incredibly uplifting."

Heffernan now wonders what the General Assembly will do in its upcoming session about civil unions, whether such legal relationships will be converted automatically into marriages or remain as is.

"We've been together for 14 years, and if the legislature takes action to convert our civil union into a marriage, then I don't know that we have to go through another ceremony," Heffernan said. "So, what we might do is still up in the air."

Gay nuptials already show signs of becoming big business in Connecticut. The Rainbow Wedding Network, a North Carolina-based bridal show company catering to the gay market, has a same-sex wedding expo planned for Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Courtyard by Marriott in Shelton. Forty gay-friendly businesses will showcase everything from catering, travel planning, wedding cakes, and photography to musical talents.

Rainbow Wedding Network organizes about 25 expos in about a dozen states annually, including New York at the Javitz Center, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco.

Amanda Hager is an event planner with the Rainbow Wedding Network, who lives in North Carolina. Four months ago, the 26-year-old met her fiance, Loren Buhse, a landscaper. The two women lived six blocks away from each other in their town for the past two years, but had never crossed paths.

Then some mutual friends introduced them at a Mexican restaurant.

"You know that saying that when you you've met 'The One' that you just know it," Hager said. "I'd hear my mom say it and I'd think, 'that is sooo corny.' It's ridiculous. Then I shook this woman's hand and I just knew. I couldn't believe it. But I did. I know that we are meant to be together."

A day after Rainbow Wedding Network's expo in Shelton, the North Carolina couple will fill out a marriage license at Shelton City Hall.

"The hard part will be to decide where to have the ceremony," Hagar said. "We want it to be outdoors, someplace beautiful, someplace special that will have meaning to us. That's what we are trying to figure out now."