The economic issue is often invoked as a reason against gay marriage legalization. According to this view’s supporters, people should not have their tax dollars used to finance something they find wrong. Gay marriage would entitle gay couples to typical marriage benefits including claiming a tax exemption for a spouse, receiving social security payments from a deceased spouse, and coverage by a spouse’s health insurance policy. Actually, on Dec. 17, 2009, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost to the federal government of extending employment benefits to same-sex domestic partners of certain federal employees (making no mention of additional costs such as Social Security and inheritance taxes) would have been $596 million in mandatory spending and $302 million in discretionary spending between 2010 and 2019. Obvi0usly the decision, only in the name of economic sustainability, to deny some people a right recognized to others is a choice hard to be advocated; that said, what they forget in this case is that gay marriages can bring financial gain to state and local governments. Revenue from gay marriage comes from marriage licenses, higher income taxes (the so-called “marriage penalty”), and decreases in costs for state benefit programs. In 2007 the Comptroller for New York City found that legalizing gay marriage could have brought $142 million to the City’s economy and $184 million to the State’s economy over three years, and actually, in the first year, same-sex weddings have already brought about 150 million dollars into state coffers.
This infographic also shows, alongside these lost benefits for the state economy, how the non-recognition of gay marriage, in those countries where this happens, results in a significant financial loss even for homosexual couples compared to their heterosexual counterparts.