The Wrong Reasons for Same-Sex Marriage

„After all, why can’t gays and lesbians have full equality, while also saving the state money and bolstering local economies? Aren’t civil rights narratives consistent with the economic case for same-sex marriage? Shouldn’t supporters use all possible arguments in the hopes that at least one will finally stick? And yet supporting marriage on economic grounds dehumanizes same-sex couples by conflating civil rights with economic perks. Americans should be offended when the value of gays and lesbians is reduced to their buying power as consumers or their human and creative capital as workers.

Why can’t same-sex couples have access to the same rights and protections as their straight neighbors simply because they are citizens? How would we respond if the right to interracial marriage were based on the prospects that these relationships made good business sense or added to the state budget? While economic arguments were certainly advanced during the struggle for African-American civil rights — in the late 1950s, Atlanta’s business-oriented mayor, William B. Hartsfield, promoted his city as being too busy to hate — those rationales are not what we think about when we remember that struggle’s highest ideals.

Worse yet, this narrative neglects the most economically vulnerable gay and lesbian couples and plays into the inaccurate stereotype of same-sex couples (particularly male couples) as being mostly well-educated and affluent. For strategic purposes, proponents of same-sex marriage often point out — if not in public rallies then in press releases, reports and legal briefs — that legalizing same-sex marriage is likely to lead to a reduction in state spending on welfare programs. Means-tested public assistance programs — notably food stamps and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which supports low-income parents with dependent children — take a spouse’s income and assets into account in determining eligibility.”