When Gov. Charlie Crist legally weds his longtime girlfriend Carole Rome on Dec. 12, St. Petersburg’s First United Methodist Church will be packed with cheering family members, friends and the most inside of Florida insiders.
Outside the church, in nearby Williams Park, hundreds of supporters of equal marriage rights—the outsiders of the Nov. 4 vote in Florida—will also cheer the governor and his bride. But it will be a double-edged celebration.
“We want to say ‘congratulations governor—when can I get married?’” said Lorna Bracewell, spokeswoman for Impact Florida, a grass roots activist group organizing the protest.
Impact Florida is a chapter of Join the Impact, a national movement formed by GLBT activists when state amendments banning same sex marriage passed in California, Arizona, and Florida in the Nov. 4 election.
Bracewell, a singer songwriter from Indian Rocks, Fla., lives with her partner of three years, whom she said she would love to marry.
“We’re very much in favor of marriage,” Bracewell said. “We’d just like that opportunity available to all Floridians regardless of gender or sexual orientation.”
The Rome/Crist wedding, she said, presents a “perfect opportunity” for same sex marriage supporters to point out the injustice and hypocrisy of Florida’s marriage laws.
“His decision to support Amendment 2 and his failure to speak out against it does represent his dropping the ball,” she said. “As the governor he’s supposed to be there insuring that the rights of all Floridians are protected.”
Crist announced his support of the anti-gay marriage measure in August, after originally saying he had a neutral, “live and let live” attitude about the issue. He had also ordered the State Republican Party to stop funding Florida4marriage.com, chief proponents of the measure. His conflicting statements, combined with looming rumors about his sexual orientation, have made him an ironic central figure in the gay marriage debate.
Those gay rumors boiled over when Crist announced his plan to marry Rome, while the bachelor governor was on Sen. John McCain’s short listed of for Vice President. The timing of the marriage plans appeared to some critics as if it could be a staged wedding, to solidify his “family values” image.
McCain went on to nominate Sarah Palin, and now the election is over—but the wedding is still on, and guests have received pink-and-cream invitations to the Dec. 12 nuptials, as well as to a lavish reception at St. Petersburg’s Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Rome has gushed about feeling blessed because of her love for Crist.
Bracewell says the demonstrators will form a candle light vigil near the resort, near the entrance to the reception at the Vinoy Resort. Impact Florida is asking demonstrators to wear pink shirts in honor of the wedding’s theme. They want it to be “a festive occasion,” Bracewell said.
Impact’s first demonstration was the national day of protest Nov. 15, where nearly 1 million people across the country demonstrated for equal marriage rights. Impact is organizing the Dec. 12 rally through its online social network, www.impactflorida.ning.com. More than 400 people attended the Nov. 15 protest in St. Petersburg; Bracewell said she hopes to double that for the wedding demonstration.
“Our ultimate goal is to see Amendment 2 repealed,” Bracewell said. “We know one demonstration is not going to accomplish the goal. But our goal is to be visible to let them see whose lives are being affected by amendment 2.
