Affirmative Arguments

The Economic Benefits of Marriage Equality for both the Individual and the State

While the moral arguments for marriage equality may be subjective to ones beliefs (which I will address in a coming post), the staggering economic and financial benefits of legalizing same-sex marriage are objectively evident and quantifiable using existing data.

To start, I will address the individualistic financial benefits that are currently associated with legal, heterosexual marriage today, as well as to same-sex couples in states which have legalized gay marriage (Maryland being one of the most recent). If same-sex marriage were made legal on a federal level, these same benefits would apply to the hundreds of thousands of couples that are currently unable to legally marry.

These benefits include, but are certainly not limited to the following:

Tax breaks and deductions

Insurance breaks

Social Security / Medicaid / Medicare benefits

Automatic spousal inheritance in the event of death

Ability to file for joint bankruptcy

Increased eligibility for Federal loans

Employment benefits

These examples are but the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the role that an “eligible spouse” plays in the wording of Federal law. According to a recent report (Tax Administration: Income Tax Treatment of Married and Single Individuals) by the General Accounting Office in Washington, DC, there are over 59 provisions in Income Tax Law alone that positively impact tax liability for married people over single people.

We live in an age of untold economic uncertainty, and benefits such as these could be, and often are, the deciding factor behind a family’s ability to support itself. On top of the vast amount of economic and financial benefits that are enjoyed by legally married couples, the marriage industry itself is a thriving segment of the currently downtrodden economy and is responsible for billions of dollars in annual Federal tax revenue.

Legalizing same-sex marriage would significantly amplify both the marriage industry and the tax revenue associated with it. This economic phenomenon is well documented in the states that have already legalized gay marriage, such as Michigan and Iowa.

For example, in the first year that Iowa legalized same-sex marriage it saw an increase in over $13 million in marriage related spending. This produced a similar increase in tax revenue, a conservative estimate of which being an additional $930,000 dollars. These estimates do not take into account couples who did not fill out gender information while filing for a marriage license. If even a portion of these were same-sex couples, the estimated revenue increase for both the marriage industry and its associated taxation would be considerably higher.

There is also the tourism to be considered. During that same first year of gay marriage legality, thousands of gay couples flooded across state lines in order to be legally married in Iowa. This influx produced an estimated $5.1 million increase in tourism related expenditures. Theoretical research has also been done to estimate the revenue that could be generated in California if gay marriage was legalized. Over a projected three year period, researchers at the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law found that the economic benefit to the state would be sizable to say the least.

Over these three years California would see an increase of… $700 million to the wedding industry,

to the wedding industry, $9 million in marriage license fees,

in marriage license fees, $64 million in Federal tax revenue, as well as an influx in tourism related to same-sex couples coming to California from other states to get married. Furthermore, these financial increases would spurn the creation of an estimated 2,200 jobs, which would further aid California’s waning economy. Maryland, which just recently passed its own law legalizing gay marriage, is expected to receive an additional $90 million in economic return as a result of the Civil Marriage Protection Act of 2012. This projection was made thanks to research done by the Maryland Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce who released their findings in a recent report. It only makes sense to apply laws legalizing marriage equality across the board at a Federal level. According to a 2004 report by the Congressional Budget Office, the national wedding industry would see an increase of over $16 billion per year as a result of legalized same-sex marriage. The Federal tax revenue from this is conservatively estimated to be just over $1 billion per year. To reiterate, while the moral issues behind Marriage Equality may be up for interpretation, the economic benefits that result from it are impossible to dismiss. As Joe Solmonese, author for BusinessWeek.com and member of the Human Rights Campaign has said, “(marriage equality) is not only the right thing to do, it is the right way to do business.” . . . Affirmation of Basic Civil Rights & Liberties for Same-Sex Couples The country in which we live was founded as a way to escape the tyranny of outside forces; to foster a community and society that held above else the sovereignty and individual freedom of each of its citizens. This, while not being an entirely new ideal, was refined and codified by our Founding Fathers. The writing of the Declaration of Independence is perhaps the best example of this

“All men are created equal…they are endowed with certain unalieble rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…to serve these rights Governments are instituted among men.” I believe that this line is an accurate condensation of the true meaning behind the Declaration of Independence and what it means to be an American. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are the things that set this country apart from the rest. However, as a nation we cannot honestly say we stand for these things when we so callously reject those in the LGBT community the very same rights that the heterosexual majority enjoys on a daily basis. Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are terms loaded with a myriad of different perspectives and definitions that (predictably) tend to support the opinion of the person providing them. This why I was surprised to find that the writings of Ayn Rand, an influential conservative author who called homosexuality both immoral and disgusting, seemed to entirely verify the reasoning behind these unalieble rights being extended to the LGBT community. Ayn Rand defines Life as, “An individual’s ability to take all those actions necessary for the preservation and enjoyment of his life…the Right of Life means that Man cannot be deprived of his Life for the benefit of another man nor any number of other men.” To me the connection is obvious. Life refers to the innate right and ability of each and every person to live in accordance with what brings them fulfillment and enjoyment. In the case of the LGBT community, this refers to what can clearly be called their unalieble right to love and live with their partner in the same exact way that their heterosexual counterparts do with theirs. From the inability to marry or to enjoy the plethora of rights inherent in that institution, same-sex couples are being deprived of their Life. Liberty, as defined by Ayn Rand, means, “Freedom from Government coercion… It means freedom from the coercive power of the state and nothing else.” This definition of Liberty compliments Rand’s definition of Life: Life is the innate ability; Liberty is the guarantee that this ability will not be hampered on the part of the state. This argument directly supports the ideal of Marriage Equality. This is to allow gay couples to wed just as the straight majority does without encountering interference (coercion) in the form of laws that would stop them from doing so. Rand’s definition of the Pursuit of Happiness is largely a combination, and culmination of her ideas behind Life and Liberty. “The Right to the Pursuit of Happiness means man’s right to live for himself, to choose what constitutes his own private, personal, individual happiness and to work for its achievement, so long as he respects the same right in others. It means that Man cannot be forced to devote his life to the happiness of another man nor of any number of other men. It means that the collective cannot decide what is to be the purpose of a man’s existence nor prescribe his choice of happiness.” It is my opinion that this three-sentence definition more than validates the equality of marriage for all persons, regardless of sexual orientation. The ability of same-sex couples to legally marry is fully within the bounds of the Right to the Pursuit of Happiness. It is no different from any other person’s attempts to live for them self, to choose what constitutes their own Private, Personal, Individual happiness, and to work toward the achievement of that happiness.

equal protection of the law for every individual and the free exercise of religion without government intervention.” As Governor Martin O’Malley said in a promotional video for the now-enacted Maryland marriage equality law, “We choose to be governed by several fundamental principles…among themand the free exercise of religion without government intervention.”

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Embracing of the LGBT Community and Recognizing their Dignity as Competent and Equal citizens of this Country My previous two posts emphasized the two primary reasons as to why Marriage Equality is a just and inherently American public policy to be enacted. The first was the obvious economic benefit that would arise as a result of it. The second was the reasoning behind it’s being firmly within the rights bestowed to the American people in the Declaration of Independence. My third and final post will examine the cultural factors that have produced the current climate of widespread prejudice and misinformation that have allowed for the continued illegality of same-sex marriage. I will also delve into the extent to which this illegality causes significant harm to those within the LGBT community. There exists in society a strange relationship between Understanding and Acceptance, a duality of two mental conditions that exhibit a complementary and reciprocal nature toward each other. These conditions, in my opinion, act as the substrate by which all cultural change grows from. Neither necessarily comes first. Some entities are accepted after understanding of them has deepened, while others are not fully understood until long after they have been granted widespread acceptance. Many other factors are of course involved in the process, and most often it is difficult to decipher the Acceptance from the Understanding in any given situation. They are the two sides of a double-edged sword, each separate from the other yet working toward the same goal. Each is capable of independent action on its own, yet each is only able to reach its full potential after conjoining with the other. Through framing the issue of Marriage Equality in these terms of Understanding and Acceptance, one can begin to decipher the factors of, and the implications behind the illegality of same-sex marriage. I believe that the current illegality and widespread legislative deviantization of marriage equality stems from an overarching lack of Understanding of, and for the LGBT community and same-sex marriage within the general populace. The gap left by this lack of Understanding has been filled with misinformation and (in my opinion) misguided religious doctrine that ranges from marginally harmless stereotyping to disgusting exhibitions of hatred and bigotry. The disjuncture this has created between Understanding and Acceptance has slowed the process of cultural change that will eventually bring about marriage equality. One of the most common bits of misinformation and misguided doctrine lies in the oft-quoted assertion that legalizing same-sex marriage will somehow impede on the religious freedoms of existing religious institutions. This never has, and never will be the case. For example, Maryland’s recent Civil Marriage and Protection Act of 2012 specifically specified that, along with providing equal protection of the law to all citizens, the free exercise of religion without government intervention would be guaranteed. This equates to the ability of any religious institution to deny marriage services to any person with whom they politically disagree, including of course same-sex couples. These points were stressed during the Civil Marriage and Protection Act’s promotional period to help dispel this misguided notion. An example of this can be seen in a short clip featuring the group Clergy for Maryland Equality. As said by Dr. Jeffrey McCune in the video, “All churches still have the right not to marry couples, as is already the case in the state of Maryland.” Another widely believed fact about same-sex marriages is that they produce a dysfunctional family unit for both the spouses and any children that they may have. Virtually all current psychological and sociological studies on this topic do not support this belief, one of which being a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics titled “The Effects of Marriage, Civil Union, and Domestic Partnership Laws on the Health and Well-Being of Children”. The results from this study showed that a couple’s sexual orientation has no bearing on their ability to provide a positive and nurturing family environment. It also goes on to explain how same-sex marriage provides the same health, social, and psychological benefits to the couple as does heterosexual marriage. Studies along this vein show a decidedly darker side to the issue as well. In states that have instituted bans on same-sex marriage there has been seen a marked increase in psychiatric disorders within the LGBT community, including an increase of over 200% in anxiety disorders. The authors of this study cite institutional discrimination (societal-level pressures and conditions) as the cause of this increase. What then could be a reasonable, logical excuse to maintain a stance against marriage equality? In my opinion, there simply are none. For every half-baked attempt to illegitimize the concept of marriage equality there has been an equal, if not greater rebuttal by the scientific community in response. All reason points toward immediate legalization of same-sex marriage, yet a large segment of the population holds fast to the misinformed and largely inaccurate side of the issue. Why is this? An enlightening radio excerpt of Alex Cortright hosting WNPR’s Annapolis morning show on February 12, 2012, I believe, sheds some light on the issue. He speaks of the evolving nature of our country’s culture, how we have forever been a country for the expansion of civil rights. The introduction of the (then) imminent second Maryland marriage equality law, the former having failed in 2011, provided for the following question regarding those opposed to it. “If we regularly used the argument of longstanding tradition, the ‘always has been’ dictum, can’t you just imagine how backwards our culture would be?” Mr. Cortright illuminates what I believe to be the most integral factor that is currently restraining our country in regards to marriage equality: misguided, overly zealous religious faith. While this may seem blatantly obvious to some (hopefully most) the blind and dogged following of such bronze age scripture has done nothing throughout America’s history but restrain the very cultural change that has lifted us to such Olympian heights. In saying so, I do not believe in any sense that individual religious freedom should be encroached upon in any way. However, my tolerance ends when this “religious freedom” amounts to little more than ignorant fear-mongering and other such methods of institutional discrimination targeting the LGBT community. If we as a people can find a way to reconcile religious belief with the logic and compassion entailed in marriage equality, I believe the process of Understanding will be able to fully take hold. Once this has happened marriage equality will be increasingly greeted with Acceptance, as will members of the LGBT community. Through this Acceptance and Understanding, two edges combining to form the sword of change, the decades old stigmatization that has been a hallmark of American treatment of same-sex marriages will begin to unravel. As this happens, so too will the societal tensions and negative preconceptions surrounding the LGBT community begin to evaporate. People will be people. A family will be a family. This, to me, is the deepest meaning behind Marriage Equality, in Maryland and elsewhere. Once we as a society Understand that those in the LGBT community are no different from the rest, that we all strive and hope for the same goals of happiness, a family, the American dream… Once this happens Acceptance will make its final transition from being an action, a metaphysical course of change, to being an inherent and subconscious societal mainstay. This represents the completion of an episode of cultural change, the final throwing off of blankets and rushing to the bedroom light, heaving on of the diminutive switch and watching the comforting light bathe over your once terrifying room to see…nothing. Everything is as it has been. And the world goes on.