Who knew? Who knew that it would be a good thing for a flagging economy – when service providers and small business owners are struggling to make ends meet – to have an influx of weddings?

I’m getting married this summer and let me tell you, it is no cheap operation.

And the independent caterer, photographer who owns her own business, small independent dress store, short term rental company run solely by the couple who own the properties and many other service providers I’ve hired over the past months are all benefiting from another gay wedding.

But the idea that discrimination is econmically inefficient – essentially the conclusion that can be drawn from the recent Massachusetts study - is not new. Richard Posner, one of the most conservative legal scholars in the United States, has long argued that racial discrimination and sex discrimination cannot continue because it creates inefficiencies in the economy. Basically, it costs money to exclude others.

Now, I didn’t ask my caterer what they thought about gay marriage, nor did I check the dress store owner’s reaction to my girlfriend and I commenting on our outfits for the big day. But even if the people making money off of my upcoming nuptials don’t agree with my relationship, they have figured out what Posner has figured out and what most of Massachusetts is now learning: excluding others not only taxes the emotional well being of individuals, it decreases revenue for a number of essential sectors of American society.

Most of the recent election debates focused on the survival of small businesses in these tough economic times. Their dire predictions about struggling middle class voters have, in many cases, come true.

So I urge readers, do your part for the American economy, have a big gay wedding.