In society, we long for a lot of things to be the same.

One sock to be accompanied by another -- of the same color and type -- when coming from the dryer as we pull a load out, and for it not to be lost in the depths of the machine.

For our mashed potatoes to stay in one compartment of the plate, while the meat and vegetable of choice remain in theirs.

And for our shoes to remain matching and side by side for easy finding.

So why not same-sex marriage?

It's less than a week before same-sex couples wishing to legally marry will be allowed to do so in California. And, among other benefits, U.S. News & World Report states a new study indicates that the upcoming marriages -- however controversial -- will provide a "significant" boost to the state's economy. According to a paper posted by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, researchers predict same-sex marriage will bring nearly $700 million to the California wedding industry and pump almost $65 million in new revenue into the state budget over the next three years.

U.S. News & World Report states the report's authors, Brad Sears, an adjunct professor of law at UCLA, and Lee Badgett, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, predict approximately half of the 103,000 same-sex couples admitting to living in the state will get married in the next three years, and nearly 70,000 couples from other states will travel to California to marry.

According to the publication, "most same-sex-marriage advocates believe those are conservative estimates not only of how many same-sex couples there are in the state but of how much enthusiasm there is among gay and lesbian couples nationwide to make their unions official." Sears and Badgett believe the combination of marriage license fees, increased state and local tax revenues and the attendant boost in tourism spending by wedding guests will create and sustain more than 2,100 jobs in the state.

Then there's the Congressional Budget Office study finding that if all 50 states and the federal government extended the rights and obligations of marriage to same-sex couples, same-sex weddings would generate almost $1 billion in revenue each year. Other estimates predict allowing the marriages could add more than $16 billion annually to the $70 billion wedding industry.

Somehow, just from listening to talk of how the "institution" of marriage is under attack and same-sex-marriage opponents believe it's the biggest fight traditional marriage (between a man and woman) has ever undergone, it appears Kansas is not ready to allow the same as California.

So, for now, we watch California to see what happens after the state Supreme Court's ruling -- declaring in May a state law banning same-sex marriage unconstitutional -- takes effect Monday. It's anticipated gay and lesbian couples throughout the U.S. will travel to California, marry and return home.

If hitting gay marriage from the standpoint of people's and the states' pocketbooks isn't enough to get them in bed with the idea, there's always the reason I and countless others believe in to prove it should come to being. It's also the reason columnist Anna Quindlen writes of: love.

Quindlen writes: "One of the most transformative social movements over our lifetime has been the battle for gay rights, and the key to its great success has been the grass-roots phenomenon of exploding stereotypes by simply saying, 'Yes, I am.' ... Or, as Ellen DeGeneres told John McCain on her show recently, 'We are all the same people, all of us.'"

"Here's what I don't understand: is there so much love and commitment in the world that we can afford, as a society, to be contemptuous of some portion of it?" Quindlen states.

Her conclusion, along with mine, is 'no.' We all feel some love. And regardless of whether I love someone of the same sex -- or you love someone, anyone -- we should be allowed to be with anyone we choose.

California's making the step. Kansas and other states should follow.

Staff writer Stephanie Farley can be e-mailed at .