Gay Weddings are Good for Business

Proposition 8 was the ballot initiative in California in which voters voted to ban same-sex marriage, 5.5 months after it first began in the state in 2008.  18,000 same-sex couples were married in those 5.5 months.  There's been a highly publicized challenge to this voter referendum and that challenge was ruled on today, overturning the vote.

What does the California's judge's ruling against Proposition 8 mean for your wedding business?

Right now, it doesn't mean anything.  To be honest, while this is a big victory, this ruling will be appealed and the case is very likely to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court.  A year or two before there's any final decision and even then, marriage equality victory is not guaranteed. This CNN article explains the next steps for Proposition 8.

I'm just being realistic.  In the meantime, there are lots of things you can do to prepare your business:

• start volunteering for Equality California or whichever marriage equality organization exists in your state
• neutralize the language on your website, marketing materials and contract materials
• identify images and graphics which are less obviously bride-and-groom for your marketing materials
• familiarize yourself with some gay wedding traditions
• attend one of my upcoming workshops

Today, a district court judge ruled that part 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is unconstitutional.  You can learn more more about the Defense of Marriage Act by following that link, but essentially, it means that my gay marriage in Massachusetts is meaningless most everywhere else including at the federal level and in most states.  Currently this ruling only affects Massachusetts residents.

The law explicitly includes a piece that U.S. states that don't allow gay marriage don't have to recognize gay marriages performed in U.S. states that do.

If this ruling stands, it is significant for a number of reasons and may impact your wedding business:

• Similar lawsuits will follow, opening the door to federal recognition by couples who live in Connecticut, Vermont, and the other places gay marriage is legal.
• You'll see more large receptions in your state hosted by couples who marry where it's legal and return home - the number of couples traveling to legally marry will jump dramatically because it will actually mean something (benefits) on the federal level!
• This should open the door for more states to legalize gay marriage as they see money lost to states where it is.
• Other parts of DOMA that impact the 45 states where gay marriage is illegal are also being challenged.  These states may be forced to recognize gay marriages performed in states where it is.  This means more weddings!
• This ruling will mean more wedding sales for all of us - an annual increase of $9.5 billion when gay marriage is legalized nationally (according to Forbes)

Though not directly related to gay marriage or gay weddings, President Obama's mandate this week provides a significant right to partners of gays and lesbians....read on....

In the U.S.:

• President Obama issued a mandate which requires hospitals to extend visitation and decision-making rights to the partners of gay men and lesbians.  This right is something all straight married couples have, but because of DOMA, has been denied same-sex couples.  This mandate is a REALLY big deal!  
• Social Security benefits are still not offered to same sex-couples, however, and there was a protest to this effect last week in LA.  This kicks off a national campaign challenging this policy.
• A new proposition to overturn Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California (though a ballot initiative), failed to get enough support to appear on the 2010 ballot.  Another attempt will be made in 2012 and there's still an active legal challenge to Proposition 8.

Happy Friday and welcome to the weekly gay marriage news roundup.  This week had some interesting developments. I'm particularly interested to see what happens with gay divorce in Texas.  Here we go!

This is the week that gay marriage began in the nation's capital.  Truly a historic day.  Let's start with that and explore the other gay marriage and wedding news of the week!

It seemed like there was something newsworthy about gay marriage every day this week, with the highlight being the decision in Maryland.  Read on to see what I mean:

In this weeks gay marriage and wedding news...

It was a good week for gay marriage.  Here's the rundown of the headlines:

One of the major disadvantages of DOMA is that gays and lesbians are unfairly taxed.  This means several important things:

There are many ways that being a gay wedding planner is different from your average wedding planner.  Although I'm not an attorney, I have to keep up on laws that may affect same sex couples.