07.11.06
Battle over same-sex marriage heat ups in Florida
Supporters of same-sex marriage are gearing up with their own campaign to make Florida’s marriage laws gay-friendly while a Wednesday deadline looms for opponents to file a ballot measure that would prevent marriage equality. The Florida Coalition To Protect Marriage has been passing around a flurry of petitions to try to meet their deadline to get enough signatures to force a constitutional amendment question onto Florida’s 2008 ballot.
Meanwhile, a Florida gay-rights group has begun a campaign to educate voters about the upcoming ballot. Equality Florida says that the anti-marriage coalition is finding the signature-gathering process is not so easy.
Still, according to the Sun-Sentinel, Equality Florida believes the organizers are likely to get enough signatures by the deadline, so in response, members are preparing their own campaign, called FairnessForAllFamilies.org, to oppose the amendment.
Equality thinks the majority of Floridians approve of gay unions: A poll the group commissioned last year found 55 percent of state residents favored “legal domestic partnerships” that would provide gay and lesbian couples the same benefits, such as health insurance, that married heterosexuals get.