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Loading ...Clergy to oppose Fla. anti-gay amendment
09.19.2008 2:57pm EDT
(Miami, Florida) Moderate religious leaders from across Florida are speaking out against a proposed amendment to the state constitution which would ban same-sex marriage and could be used to deny benefits to co-habitating non-married couples – both straight and gay.
Dozens of pastors and rabbis met in meetings in six areas statewide this week to denounce the proposed amendment, saying they will tell their congregations to vote against it in November.Leaders of Fairness for All Families, the umbrella group formed to fight the amendment, attended all six meetings, telling the religious leaders that the amendment would affect people of all faiths and do far more than ban same-sex marriage.
“This will prohibit the Legislature from conducting civil unions or anything that would give, by law, any substantial rights to partners,” Beth Fountain, the Tampa Bay field organizer for Fairness for All Families told a meeting in Clearwater. “This goes well beyond the gay marriage issue.”
The meetings came a week after conservative pastors meet to voice support for the amendment.
Florida already has a law restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples, but supporters of the amendment say the law could be overturned in court.
The conservative group Florida4Marriage attempted to have the proposed amendment placed on the 2006 ballot but fell short of the required number of signatures. Under Florida law, the organization was allowed to continue to add names to the petition in a bid to get it on the 2008 ballot. It was certified in February to go on the November ballot.
Last year it was discovered that the state GOP was bankrolling the amendment effort.
An investigation by the St. Petersburg Times into funding for the Florida4Marriage found that of the $193,000 that had been raised by the group $150,000 came from a single donor – the Florida Republican Party.
A Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month found that 55 percent of voters support the amendment – short of the 60 percent needed to amend the constitution.
Why do the gays continue to give our PINK Dollars to States like FL? It really irks me that we support them to fight against us.
Michael
I take offense to your comment, either your confused or can’t read. We’re fighting for GLBT rights, not against them. By the way, most of the co-called Pink Dollars you speak of, aren’t going to Florida, their going to California. I serve on the Fairness For All Families, (FFAF), Tampa Bay Steering Committee and am proud to work with Beth. I do not receive a single pink penny, nor do any of the hundreds of volunteers across the state working to defeat this mean-spirited Amendment.
When was the last time you did something positive for your local community? Have you ever stood all day in scorching 90 degree heat at the polls, educating voters to the adverse effects this Amendment will have on both gay and straight unmarried couples. Or worked tirelessly, speaking to churches, groups, organizations, or anyone willing to listen, manning phone banks and walking door to door handing out literature.
FFAF is a grassroots non-profit organization staffed primarily by volunteers. Our efforts have paid off, as 365Gay.Com reports, recent polls show the number of voters supporting the amendment dropped from 58% to 55%. Their getting further and further from the 60% majority they need. Considering we live in the Bible Belt, with anti-gay churches through out our state fighting tooth and nail to garner support for the Amendment, this is quite an achievement. We’re extremely optimistic, as we continue to work day and night, we could very well become one of the few states to defeat such an amendment.
I’m proud to be apart of such a wonderful group of dedicated people, fighting with all their hearts and souls to defeat this Amendment. FFAF volunteers and our allies deserve the respect their due and the support from other brothers and sisters across the country. We certainly do not deserve criticism from anyone whose not out their pounding the pavement side by side with us.
VOTE NO ON 2.
Michael
I take offense to your comment, either your confused or can’t read. We’re fighting for GLBT rights, not against them. By the way, most of the co-called Pink Dollars you speak of, aren’t going to Florida, their going to California. I serve on the Fairness For All Families, (FFAF), Tampa Bay Steering Committee and am proud to work with Beth. I do not receive a singlr pink penny, nor do any of the hundreds of volunteers across the state working to defeat this mean-spirited Amendment.
When was the last time you did something positive for your local community? Have you ever stood all day in scorching 90 degree heat at the polls on primary day, educating voters to the adverse effects this Amendment will have on both gay and straight unmarried couples. Or worked tirelessly, speaking to churches, groups, organizations, or anyone willing to listen, manning phone banks and walking door to door handing out literature.
FFAF is a grassroots non-profit organization staffed primarily by volunteers. Our efforts have paid off, as 365Gay.Com reports, recent polls show the number of voters supporting the amendment dropped from 58% to 55%. Their getting further and further from the 60% majority they need. Considering we live in the Bible Belt, with anti-gay churches through out our state fighting tooth and nail to garner support for the Amendment, this is quite an achievement. We’re extremely optimistic, as we continue to work day and night, we could very well become one of the few states to defeat such an amendment.
I’m proud to be apart of such a wonderful group of dedicated people, fighting with all their hearts and souls to defeat this Amendment. FFAF volunteers and our allies deserve the respect their due and the support from other brothers and sisters across the country. We certainly do not deserve criticism from anyone whose not out their pounding the pavement side by side with us.
That’s nice. But you know if there really were more genuine Christians in this country, Anti-Marriage Amendments like these would never get on the ballot.
Unfortunately, too many (but not all) Christians, for the most part, have become the Lions and We have become the meal.
Martyrs are very often sanctified. I wonder if the next great religion will be symbolized with people wearing jewelry depicting Matthew Shepard crucified to a split-rail fence.
The evil which people do, in lonely fields in Wyoming and at the ballot box, would make Christ weep.
~ Bud Evans
R.Zeke, keep up the good fight. And know that there are those of us out there that support you and men/women like you everywhere. (Not Just in California.)
Every Presidential elections gay issues are always in the ballot. This is a republican strategy to rally the base to go out and vote and secure independent votes. It’s an effective strategy looking at the past two presidential elections especially in battle ground states. There will be no democrat in the whitehouse for the next two decades guaranteed.