Icing on the cake: Diane Olson, right, and her wife Robin Tyler receive a wedding cake from attorney Gloria Allred at a news conference in Los Angeles. Photo: Reuters
San Francisco: On the day the Supreme Court handed two major victories to the gay rights movement, Rossmoor Pastries in Signal Hill, California, put the finishing touches on a wedding cake celebrating gay marriage.
The cake – creamy white topped with two same-sex couples kissing – is the first of many that owner Charles Feder anticipates baking as gay weddings resume in the state. He expects gay wedding celebrations to be a boon to his business.
”When gay marriage was allowed previously in California, we did three or four [cakes] a week, about 20 a month,” Mr Feder said. ”I am expecting that to come back with a fury.”
On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court struck down the federal Defence of Marriage Act and denied an appeal to a ruling that struck down Proposition 8, which in 2008 banned gay marriages in California.
Economists say those twin decisions could be a boon to both state and federal coffers, and grant new financial benefits to married gay couples.
The federal government could gain $US500 million ($540 million) to $US700 million annually in taxes with the influx of newly recognised marriages, the Congressional Budget Office said.
In California alone, the state’s budget could see a gain of $US40 million in wedding-related tax revenue in the next three years, according to the Williams Institute, at the University of California-Los Angeles Law.
The wedding industry – including travel agencies planning honeymoons and dress shops selling bridal gowns – is poised to hear the ring of cash registers as gay marriages resume.
In the next three years, 37,000 same-sex couples are expected to wed in California, generating an estimated $US492 million in revenue for the state’s business, according to the Williams Institute.
Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, California, plans to stock up on same-sex wedding invitations featuring, for example, two tuxedos or two bridal gowns together, said operations manager Dolores Bauer.
”It’s not just the wedding, but all the other pieces that go with it – the showers, the parties, the rehearsal dinners, the personalised stationery,” Ms Bauer said.
It is not just small businesses that are going to cash in on gay weddings. Lawyers, financial planners and big Wall Street banks are already gearing up to help the newly wed figure out tax, retirement and other issues.
The other beneficiary of new marriages will be the divorce lawyer. The ruling will make divorces for gay couples much easier and cheaper, according to Debra Schoenberg, a family law solicitor based in San Francisco.
Author: Shan Li
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 29 June 2013