The newest mantra of the gay rights
opponent is that society cannot afford to grant gay men and lesbians
equal rights and that legislators who back the measures are
economically “irresponsible.”
In Colorado, where a state Senate panel
is set to consider Democratic Senator Jennifer Veiga's bill that
would extend health benefits to the gay spouses of state employees,
opponents have labeled the measure unaffordable.
“Coloradans can't afford this social
experiment. ... Let them [Senators] know it is not okay to use our
tax dollars in such an irresponsible way,” a Focus on the Family
radio spot says.
Opponents to a gay marriage bill about
to be debated in the Rhode Island Senate say lawmakers need to
wrangle the budget first.
“These are the same legislatures who
don't have time to balance our budget, to restrain out-of-control
spending, or come to some kind of agreement on immigration, but they
have time to mess with gay marriage?” a female announcer says in a
National Organization for Marriage Rhode Island (NOM) radio ad.
And in a Citizen Link interview,
Jenny Tyree, marriage analyst at the Colorado Springs-based Focus on
the Family Action, clearly linked gay marriage to the prosperity of
the nation.
“These [gay marriage/civil union]
bills are advanced to promote an agenda that ignores the stabilizing
influence of marriage for children, adults and our economy,” she
said.
“Our country is in a period of
economic uncertainty, and people should contact their state
legislators and urge them to promote family and societal stability.”
But a newly released economic study on
the benefits of gay unions disagrees.
In a report titled The Economic
Impact of Extending Marriage to Same-Sex Couples in Maine, the
Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law concludes that extending
marriage to gay couples would boost Maine's economy. The same think
tank concluded that gay marriage in California could be worth as much
as $64 million over three years.
The report said: “Throughout this
report, we estimate the economic impact of weddings conservatively.
... We find that the effect of allowing same-sex couples to marry in
Maine is a gain of approximately $60 million to Maine's businesses
and workers, and $3.6 million in state and local government revenues
over the next three years.”