5 Years After Same-sex marriages became legal in Massachusetts, Studies Find Economic Benefit
The Republican - Masslive.com
By Pay Cahill
May 30, 2009


Julie Pokela used to be cautious about how she described her relationship with her partner, Elizabeth Denny.

Girlfriend? Significant other?

"You don't know how people - especially strangers -will react," says Pokela, of Northampton. (Click on image to enlarge.) Photo by David Molnar / The RepublicanElizabeth Denny, left, and Julie Pokela pose for a photograph at their home in the Florence section of Northampton. They were married in Massachusetts on May 18, 2004. May 18 also marked their 25th anniversary as a couple.

That changed on May 18, 2004, when Pokela and Denny were married in Northampton. After 20 years together, they acquired the right to introduce each other as "my wife."

It's been five years since Massachusetts became the first state in the country to allow gay couples to marry.

Since then, there have been more than 12,350 same-sex marriages in the Bay State.

Gay marriage has also become legal in Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Iowa. New York and New Hampshire are on the brink. The California state Supreme Court this week upheld a ban on new same-sex marriages, but allowed existing marriages to stand.

Now, at a time when everyone is worried about the economy, there's a hint that legalizing gay marriage might have been a smart financial move for Massachusetts.

Two new studies from the Williams Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law suggest that the commonwealth has made some money from the matter.

"The Business Boost from Marriage Equality" concludes that between May 2004 and September 2008:

• Nearly half of married same-sex couples in Massachusetts spent $5,000 or more on wedding-related expenses. Nearly one-tenth spent over $20,000.

• Same-sex couples averaged 16 out-of-state guests at their weddings, and a quarter of them had 21 out-of-state guests.

Do the math: More weddings mean more money. People buy gowns and wedding cakes and rent tuxedoes and limousines. Guests check into hotels. The study estimates that same-sex marriage has led to "a positive impact to the Massachusetts economy of approximately $111 million over the last four and a half years."

The boost is not exactly a boom. The authors of the "Business Boost" study admit that "wedding spending represents only a tiny fraction of all spending in the state."

Also, less than 8 percent of marriages in Massachusetts have been same-sex. And, now that other states have legalized same-sex unions, Massachusetts may not remain a gay marriage Mecca.

After the initial burst of interest in 2004, the rate of same-sex marriages in the Bay State stabilized. The 6,121 gay marriages in that first year are almost equal to all the gay marriages performed statewide in the years since.

In 2005, 2006, 2007 and the first nine months of 2008, there were 6,236 gay weddings, according to statistics from the state Department of Public Health.

With the exception of a few towns and cities, notably Northampton, most of the commonwealth's 351 communities have recorded same-sex marriages in the single digits since that first year.

Still, giving gay marriage legal status will benefit the state economically in a variety of ways, says M.V. Lee Badgett, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, who is research director of the Williams Institute, and co-author of the "Business Boost" study.

"You go into big decisions like buying a house and having children with people you're going to stay with for a long time," says Badgett.

The second study from the Williams Institute, "Marriage Equality and the Creative Class," suggests that legalizing same-sex marriage has attracted an economically desirable group to Massachusetts.

Gary J. Gates, a UCLA researcher and author of the study, calls it the "creative class," which he describes as "young, mobile and highly educated individuals."

According to him, these people have a capacity for innovation that is key to success in a post-industrial economy.

"Same-sex couples are more likely than the general population to be in the creative class," says Gates.

In his research, he found that creative class workers were 2.5 times more likely to move to Massachusetts after the legalization of same-sex marriages than before.

Same-sex spouses say marriage has had some practical benefits for them.

"It means we can stop worrying about legal protections," says Heidi Nortonsmith, of Northampton, who is married to Gina Nortonsmith and has two sons.

Dealing with banks and insurance companies is "much smoother," says Heidi Nortonsmith. "There are fewer bumps along the road."

But many of the gains are intangible, she added, describing marriage as "momentous - and sacred."

"It was a day I never dreamt would come, to be married to Liz," Pokela says. "The wedding itself meant so much to us. We grow up in a culture where marriage is a giant celebration, and that's the world that we wanted to participate in, too.

"I felt so proud that I was living in Massachusetts," she adds.

Photo by Mark M. Murray / The RepublicanArthur and Donald Henneberger, of Springfield, celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary this month. They were married in 2004.

"We're a married couple, like normal people," says Donald P. Henneberger, of Springfield, who married Arthur Henneberger five years ago. "Our nieces and nephews now call us both 'uncles.'"

But the struggle isn't over, says Henneberger. The Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996, legislates that the federal government does not treat same-sex relationships as marriages.

As a result, "in some ways things are more complex, federally," says Pokela. For example, she files her federal taxes as a single person.

Repealing the Defense of Marriage Act is the next step for gays, says Donald Henneberger.

"I look forward to the day when I can feel and be legally married all across the country when I travel," says Heidi Nortonsmith.

"Times are changing," adds Henneberger. "After five years, people must realize that the sky hasn't fallen."

Not everyone agrees. The Massachusetts Family Institute, in association with the National Organization for Marriage, recently commissioned a poll that found 44 percent of Massachusetts voters opposed same sex-marriage and 43 percent approved it.

Kristian M. Mineau, president of the institute, says his group opposes same-sex marriage because it's not good for children.

"Children fare best in a home with a father and a mother," he says. "The issue is not homosexuality. The issue is the institution of marriage."

The survey included a question about whether those polled agreed or disagreed with the statement, "All things being equal, it is better for children to be raised by their married mother and father." Seventy-six percent of the respondents agreed, 66 percent of them strongly, according to the institute. And, 21 percent disagreed, 13 percent of them strongly.

The institute's poll involved a telephone survey of 306 people taken March 30 and 31, which it contends is representative of voters in Massachusetts and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7 percent.