Marriage equality and Tennessee: A fiscal note

Occasionally when you read the news, you get a real window into what some of the everyday opponents of equality are thinking. Reading this Volunteer TV report was one of those moments:

"I don't think it's an institution I want to support," said one man who wished to remain anonymous. He said he hopes gay marriage isn't in Tennessee's future. "I don't want to sit there and pay for a lifestyle," he said.

We'll leave aside the vexing question of where it is this man thinks he's supposed to sit while he's paying for someone else's marriage--some sort of gay waiting room?--but it occurs to me that some people probably think that, since marriage equality would require government action, it must necessarily cost money.

But anyone who gets over the fog of the idea of a same-sex marriage will remember that marriage is a source of revenue for the state. A marriage license is between $60 and $100, at least in Nashville, depending on whether you complete a premarital preparation course. Yes, marriage equality would be a direct source of revenue to the State of Tennessee. And studies indicate that it provides indirect economic benefits as well.

Oh, yeah, it's also the right thing to do.

-Chris Sanders