The $9.5 Billion Gay Marriage Windfall - Forbes.com

The $9.5 Billion Gay Marriage Windfall - Forbes.com: "The $9.5 Billion Gay Marriage Windfall
Miriam Marcus, 06.16.09, 06:00 AM EDT
If same-sex marriage were legalized nationwide, the lackluster wedding industry would perk up fast.


Howls of protest erupted last month when California's Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, stripping gay and lesbian couples of their right to marry. Adding to the din: all the disappointed planners, seamstresses, jewelers, travel agents and caterers who comprise the massive yet plodding American wedding industry.

There are 781,267 same-sex couples living together in the U.S., according to the Census Bureau's 2005-07 American Community Survey. The Williams Institute, a research arm of UCLA's law school, predicts that if gay marriage were legalized nationwide--only Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, Vermont, Iowa and (as of earlier this month) New Hampshire allow it now--about half of those couples would tie the knot within three years.
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