Fifth Anniversary for Gay Weds Boston Herald By Marie Szaniszlo
May 17, 2009
Supporters, Opponents See Long Road Ahead
Five years after Massachusetts became the first state in the
country to legalize gay marriage, the issue is an
apparent boon for the local economy, a mundane fact
of life for many citizens and a vital concern for
opponents.
“Is there a battle still to be fought?
Absolutely,” said Kris Mineau, president of the
Massachusetts Family Institute, which led an
unsuccessful push to put the issue on the ballot in
Massachusetts. “This is not over.”
Mineau said his group hasn’t ruled out another
petition drive to amend the state constitution and
ban gay marriage. In 2007, a push for a referendum
was rejected by lawmakers by a 151-45 vote.
“We are not going away,” Mineau said. “Looking
back over the last five years, we feel it’s a
travesty that citizens have been denied the right to
vote on gay marriage.”
Mineau may have an uphill battle. Suffolk
University polls show that from 2004 to 2009,
support for gay marriage grew from 40 percent of
those surveyed to 50 percent.
And economic analysts see a boon for the state.
Over the five years, the Massachusetts tourism
economy received $112 million in new spending,
thanks partly to gay and lesbian leisure travelers,
“a demographic that refuses to give up a passion for
travel even in hard times,” said Pat Moscaritolo,
president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention
and Visitors Bureau.
The number of U.S. visitors increased from 16.4
million in 2003 to 17.4 million in 2008, according
to the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism.
Visitor spending in Boston and Cambridge rose from
$6.15 billion to $7.2 billion, according to the
convention bureau.
“Allowing gay couples to marry won’t end the
recession, but their spending still helps in tough
times for businesses,” noted economist M. V. Lee
Badgett, a study co-author and director of the
Center for Public Policy & Administration at the
University of Massachusetts Amherst.
A study released last week by UCLA’s Williams
Institute found the state also is attracting more
young, highly educated “creative class”
professionals.
“Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American
Community Survey show that same-sex couples in the
‘creative class’ were 2.5 times more likely to move
to Massachusetts after 2004 than before,” notes Gary
J. Gates, Williams Distinguished Scholar at Williams
Institute.
Since May 17, 2004, more than 12,350 same-sex
couples have married in Massachusetts, out of
slightly more than 172,000 marriages in the state,
according to September 2008 figures.
Advocates plan to see those numbers rise
nationwide.
Connecticut, Iowa, Maine and Vermont have all
legalized gay marriage this spring. New Hampshire
Gov. John Lynch said last week that he will sign a
bill to make his state the sixth state if lawmakers
revise it to strengthen protections for churches
opposed to gay marriage.
“Our mission will not be accomplished,” said
Scott Gortikov, executive director of MassEquality,
which led the battle in the Bay State, “until we
achieve full equality for every gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgender person.”
