Gay Marriage Makes $275 Million for New York

Photo by Think Stock

It was a year ago this July that New York state legalized gay marriage, and in that past year, New York City’s economy alone was flooded with $275 million in revenue thanks to that decision.

Because the thing is, with that many more weddings going on, there are that many more people out and about and opening up their wallets—200,000 more people, it’s estimated. Those people ate, they stayed in hotels, they shopped. And they celebrated their friends’ ability to tie the knot with the government’s blessing.

“You look over the last few months and say the world has not changed dramatically,” Republican State Senator Jim Alesi said. “It still turns around 24 hours a day, but lives have changed for the better, those people that now can be married.” He, along with three other Republicans, voted to legalize same-sex marriage last year, ensuring a win of 33-29 in the senate.

“I received the usual kind of political threats that, you know, We’re gonna kill you politically,” Alesi said. “But there were also a lot of people that were just everyday people that I wouldn’t have expected to come up to me and say they were going to support me, that they believed it was courageous.”

The senator even attended a gay wedding this week.

It’s a pretty happy thing all around.

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