The Economics of Gay Weddings

My religious convictions aside yesterday's legislation could be good for Canada. Already there is a burgeoning industry around gay weddings, particularily with regards to tourism.

It seems to me, just from watching a few news reports that we have become a destination for gay tourism. I am aware of both American and Israeli same-sex couples who have come here to get married and we have shows such as My Fabulous Gay Wedding on prime time. The gay community has been capitalising on this and our national protestant denomination, The United Church of Canada, and many of our Anglican diocese have little problem performing gay weddings and have not been shy about being gay friendly. Therefore it would seem to me that it would be a wise move, economically, to get on board with this trend.

Statistically speaking, homosexuals live a more affluent lifestyle than the general population and are therefore a very lucrative market segment. Canada would be foolish to ignore this and particularily in economically depressed areas, such as the maritimes and parts of the praries. These are people with deep pockets and a desire to spend big, observe a gay pride parade, and do not forget that because they generally have no children that translates into a greater disposable income even at the lowest rungs of society.

It simply makes good economic sense to exploit the new economic opportunities this legislation represents.

However as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth I must caution my reader that I have expressed a short-term view. To quote Steve Taylor, "..for if the Lord don't care and he chooses to ignore-ah, tell it to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah"; in the long-term there will be grave consequences, grave economic consequences. But that is a religious, not an economic argument and therefore in best addressed at Search for Righteousness (However it has not been addressed at this time).