Gay Marriage Can Save America -- this is not my original idea, it is from Margaret Cho's book "I Have Chosen To Stay and Fight", which is an awesome book for many reasons (LOVE you, Margaret!) but the Gay Marriage part is my favorite. I think a good idea should be shared!
The idea being: If Gay Marriage was legalized in the United States, it would turn around the economy. Just imagine -- every Target across the country would be full of Happy Couples registering for everything from camping equipment (you know how us kids love to camp), to patio furniture, to matching His & His towels. And every other major retailer would have to follow suit by changing their Bridal Registry to Gift Registry (something Target has done for a while). Maybe even Wal-Mart, the bastion of homophobic retail workplace (check out the HRC's index on workplace equality. Visit www.HRC.org and click on the Corporate Equality Index on the site's bottom right hand corner.) maybe even Wal-Mart would have to change with the times!
Then think of the domino effect: plenty of businesses would profit from this = from florists to stationery companys to tux rental places (rent the groom's tux & get the other groom's tux free!), to the travel industry (yes, gays could save bankrupt airlines if we could all fly to some exotic location for our wedding, toting an assortment of friends and relatives along for the ride). Just think of all the hotel rooms across the country that we could fill up with those guests! The catering business would go crazy! Even organized religion would benefit - churches across the country could be rented out & pastors could have something to do besides try to come up with punny phrases for their marquees.
And while I'm happy for the 3,500 plus (and counting!) couples who have had a "civil union" ceremony in England recently (Elton John and David Furnish spent over a million dollars just for one reception!), I think that in the US of A we need legalized MARRIAGE. I don't know why this concept frightens so many people. Even some allegedly "liberal" people are gun-shy when it comes to Gay Marriage. (Who? Oh, like Hilary Clinton, who can forgive her husband spunking on some black cocktail dress, but now says she's against Gay Marriage because she's afraid to piss off conservative women who might vote for her in 2008). Do people think the world will end if I can call Lee my HUSBAND instead of my PARTNER? We've been together 13 years, we've owned two houses, a condo, a kitty, and a flock of chickens together, and the banks and the animals have never minded that we're just like any other couple. Our families love and accept us -- I would like to introduce Lee's Mom as my Mother-In-Law instead of "My Partner's Mother" -- what the hell is wrong with that? Lee & I have been together so long, we don't even have sex anymore -- just like real married people!!!! And yet, still, if we could be legally married I'd go all out and do my part to SAVE AMERICA!