Just a few months after garnering criticism for calling gay civil unions “crazy,” GOP Chairman Michael Steele has done it again. At a party conference with weekend in Georgia, the Maryland politician tried to caste gay marriage as a pocketbook issue. According to Steele, gay marriage would put too much financial strain on small businesses:

Now all of the a sudden I’ve got someone who wasn’t a spouse before, that I had no responsibility for, who is now getting claimed as a spouse that I now have financial responsibility for. So how do I pay for that? You just cost me money.

So apparently its ok for hard-working Americans to trade in their rights for the good of business. Steele said portraying gay marriage as a financial issue is one way the Republican Party can repositon itself with voters. Am I the only one who finds this insulting?

What Steele is suggesting is against fundamental human and moral values. He should apologize for his discriminatory comment.

Besides, I have yet to hear any business complain that having to pay health benefits and the like to gay spouses caused a financial difficulty. If marriage is so expensive for businesses, then why let anyone marry?

In other news, a study recently published by UCLA estimates that gay marriage brought in $111 million for Massachusetts over the last five years. A second study conducted by the same group found that young, educated gay couples were 2.5 times more likely to move to the state because of the marriage law.

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