Miscellaneous

When Discrimination Harms Your Economy

By Fannie

Specifically, floral shops, gift shops, bakeries, and others in the marriage business have had a spate of cancellations since Prop 8 passed. The mayor of Palm Springs reports 8 cancelled ceremonies in that city alone in the past few days. Of this, he says, "That?s a huge economic impact, which is gone in these difficult economic times."

It's no surprise that businesses, in general, are struggling and that financial times are tight. Yesterday, in fact, the Governator proposed higher taxes to address a swelled state budget deficit.

The passage of Prop 8 didn't cause this deficit, but it will play a part in worsening it. Weddings are big business. Gay people are going to be more reluctant to spend their dollars in a state that just took something important away from them.

I certainly hope "family values" organizations obsessed with defending a word had some sort of contingency plan to recover this loss of revenue. Maybe they can pass the hat around to the millions of California voters who caused this loss of revenue.

Full post as published by Fannie's Room on November 07, 2008 (boomark / email).