Business Impact of California’s Passage of Proposition 8

As reported earlier on this blog, the citizens of California have approved Proposition 8 which restricts marriages to opposite-sex couples.  The impact of this Proposition on same-sex couples who wanted to marry is clear and the impact on those couples who married when such marriages were authorized is subject to dispute.

In addition to these concerns, there is a considerable financial impact on businesses that catered to same-sex weddings as described in Jesse McKinley, Demise of Same-Sex Weddings Disheartens Businesses, NY Times, Nov. 7, 2008.  Of course, there will be an opposite impact on the economies of Massachusetts and Connecticut which do not restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples.