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Marriage Equality Boosted Iowa's Economy With $13 Million In New Spending! |
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Written by Instinct Staff |
Wednesday, 07 December 2011
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| Tags: iowa, marriage equality, revenue, new spending, $13 million, same sex, wedding, tourism, studies, research, gop, voters, republicans, nom, majority, support |
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Thanks to marriage equality, Iowa's economy has received a major boost in the form of $12 million in new spending. Not bad for a recession—but don't expect the GOP presidential candidates or homophobic organizations like the National Organization for Marriage mentioning it. Details follow.
A study from the Williams Institute finds that during the first year of marriage equality, the tourism generated from same-sex couples and their wedding guests amounted to $13 in new spending in Iowa. (This figure translates to roughly $930,000 in new revenue for the state.)
Adds ThinkProgress:
About 59 percent of the same-sex couples who married in that first year were from outside Iowa, but mostly from neighboring states in the Midwest. Because the state implements a three-day waiting period to receive a marriage license, these couples may have contributed even greater boosts through tourism if they spent those days in Iowa. With the available data, the authors of the report estimate that marriage equality helped create between 59 and 70 new jobs in the travel industry.
If that wasn't enough to silence current attempts to steal away LGBT citizens' civil rights in the state, a new poll finds that a majority of Iowa's GOP voters support legal recognition of same-sex couples.
The poll, conducted by the New York Times and CBS, revealed that a majority of Iowan voters who identify as Republican support marriage equality or civil unions for same-sex couples, whereas only 36 percent support offering no rights.
Should we anticipate NOM (the main anti-gay hate group spending millions to reverse equality in Iowa) to acknowledge either of these items?
(Source: ThinkProgress, JoeMyGod)
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