Plenty of Smiles in Fifth Anniversary Pictures

Mark Schuster and Jeffrey Webb are immigrants of a different sort.

So are Lynn Adler and Paige Warren.

The gay American couples resettled in Massachusetts, where they are treated — legally and socially — like any other married folks.

They moved in part because they wanted their children to grow up in a welcoming environment.

"There's a real difference you feel living in Massachusetts," says Schuster, who moved from Los Angeles with Webb and their now 5-year-old twin sons to take a job as a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "Gay married couples are now just a part of Massachusetts life."

Adler, who took a job as a professor of plant, soil and insect sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, married Warren once they moved to the state. They now have a 3-year-old boy.

"There's a real peace of mind living here. So many of the kinds of worries you have elsewhere — about how you'll be treated in a hospital situation or getting equal benefits — are just taken off your shoulders," Adler says.

This month marks the fifth anniversary of Massachusetts' breakthrough — opening marriage to gay couples: More than 12,000 have since tied the knot there.

Three new studies document wonderful results: Gay matrimony has been a $111 million boost to the state's economy. The average gay couple spends $7,400 on a wedding. Almost one in 10 spends $20,000 or more, according to the Williams Institute.

It's sparked a migration boomlet, the California think tank reports.

Also, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health found that gay couples say marrying strengthened their relationships and made them more likely to be out:

— Nearly three-quarters of married gay couples now feel more committed to their partners and more accepted by their communities.

— Eighty-nine percent said all or most family members support their marriage.

— Of the 28 percent raising children, 93 percent said their kids are happier because of their marriage.

The Williams Institute says the migration of gay couples to Massachusetts is especially noticeable among young, highly skilled professionals like Schuster and Adler, the very workers states need in order to thrive in the global economy.

Such "creative class" individuals in gay relationships were 2.5 times more likely to move to Massachusetts in the three years after marriage became an option than the previous three years, the institute found.

Study author Gary Gates notes that by attracting very skilled gay workers, same-sex marriage "has the potential to have a long-term positive economic impact."

It can also produce a "coattail effect." Schuster says he has mentioned Massachusetts' marriage-friendly climate when wooing out-of-state professionals to Harvard.

The strength of that appeal was documented in the state government survey, Gates points out.

Half of gay married couples who moved to Massachusetts said "marriage equality or the state's (gay) rights climate" was a factor. One in five declared that was the only reason they relocated, Gates reports.

The prospect of living in a state offering same-sex marriage was a big plus for Adler and Warren.

Adler had been a biology professor at Virginia Tech, where she couldn't even put Warren on her health plan.

The couple worried about trying to bring up a child in the state. When Adler accepted her Massachusetts job offer, she wrote to Virginia state legislators: "I am very sad and sorry to be leaving Virginia Tech. ... However, the laws of Virginia make it difficult for me to have a long-term future here."

The message for states wanting the best and brightest workers is clear. As talented gay couples plan their futures, they'll increasingly settle in gay-marriage-friendly states.

Deb Price of The Detroit News writes the first nationally syndicated column on gay issues. To find out more about Deb Price and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.

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