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Loading ...Fla. anti-gay amendment creeps closer to victory
10.24.2008 2:12pm EDT
(Miami, Florida) With just over a week before election day, a new poll shows a proposed amendment to the Florida constitution to ban same-sex marriage and any legal recognition of the unions of unmarried couples is moving closer to passage.
The Mason-Dixon poll also indicates that though the number of undecided voters is shrinking, they will still decide the outcome of the measure, known as Amendment 2.The survey, taken Monday and Tuesday this week, shows that 57 percent of likely voters support the amendment, just shy of the 60 percent required for passage.
Thirty-six percent oppose the amendment and seven percent are undecided.
”While the current support level remains below the 60 percent threshold, it still has a good shot at voter ratification,” Mason-Dixon pollster Brad Coker told the Miami Herald.
A similar Mason-Dixon poll taken earlier this month found that 55 percent of likely voters supported the gay-marriage amendment, while 34 percent were against it. Eleven percent were undecided.
The proposed amendment says, “Inasmuch as marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.”
Florida already has a law restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples but supporters of the amendment say the law could be overturned in court.
Opponents of the proposed amendment say that in addition to barring gay marriage, it would bar civil unions and would be used to deny partner benefits not only to same-sex couples but also to unmarried couples who live together.
Earlier this week, Florida Red & Blue, which is fighting the proposed amendment, filed a complaint with the Florida Elections Commission alleging that Florida4Marriage – the organization behind the measure – is encouraging donors to give money to Florida Family Action Inc., a not-for-profit agency that then turned money over to Florida4Marriage.
By donating to the non-profit, donors do not have to be identified. People giving money directly to Florida4Marriage would be required to have their names filed with the commission, making the names accessible to the public.
In its complaint, Red & Blue cites an email sent by Florida4Marriage leader John Stemberger to supporters last month, encouraging opponents of gay marriage to donate to the non-profit so their names would not become public.
Red & Blue called for the commission to investigate and press charges.
Florida is one of three states with proposed constitutional bans on same-sex marriage on the ballot. In California, the only one of the three which currently allows gays and lesbians to wed, a poll released Thursday shows the amendment losing among likely voters, 52 percent to 44 percent. But when the margin of error is factored in, it is almost a dead heat. The third state is Arizona.
I’ve seen numerous comments suggesting an embargo of Florida vacations. Remember, Florida is not all about vacations. And some of us actually live here. We have thriving communities here and we aren’t ready to give up the fight yet.
Please, encourage us, fight with us, and share in our victory or our defeat. Don’t write us off yet.
What would be required to challenge the Constitutionality of Prop 2 in the case of it passing? Why isn’t there any high power lawyers/legal eagles and the gay community organizations “DEMANDING” that we be treated fairly and equally??????????
How is there so much power in hate mongering????????
Keep a smile on your face and love in your heart!
Move to florida, the land of severe sunburn, skin cancer, blinding sunlight, of unrelenting heat and humidity, no gay adoption of kids and then likely amendment 2 passing, i think not
If Hate amendment does make into the state constitution, I would say every LGBT person leave the state of Florida. I left over a year ago. I would also say no more vacations from LGBT people to Florida. If every LGBT person agreed to avoid Florida for one year, watch what would happen to the economy there. It is in bad enough shape as it is.
Every LGBT person ought to make reservations for a week at a hotel, set up a rental car, the whole nine yards. Make sure you don’t have to put any money down. Than a few weeks write and cancel aall reservations stateing that Florida doesn’t like LGBT people, so we are going to spend our money someplace else.
I HAVE FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE ABOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS AMENDMENT 2…THEY ARE JUSS TRYIN TO KILL DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIP..BECAUSE ALREADY 4 TIMES OVER IT IS ILLEGAL FOR US GAYS TO BE MARRIED IN FLORIDA.. ((BOOOOOO)) BUT HONESTLY.. MY GSA (GAY-STRAIGHT ALLIANCE) AT UWF HAS BEEN GOING HARD ON TRYIN TO GET PEOPLE TO VOTE NO. PEOPLE NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS GOING TO AFFECT THE STRAIGHT.. DO DOMESTIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR ANYONE.. GAY OR STRAIGHT.. HAHAHA… PEOPLE ARE NOT EDUCATED ENOUGH ON THESE.. THEY NEED TO BE.
Here, here. I have long held that the gay community should stop supporting States that are so openly hateful towards us. Florida is one of the worst. Unfortunately, in boycotting such states, many of our gay brothers/sisters that own businesses there will suffer.
The sad thing is that a lot of gays still vacation in Florida, attend circuit parties there and even move there from elsewhere in the U.S. Climate and entertainment often trump civil rights in a lot of people’s minds.
IF it passes – I won’t ever go to Fla. again – Guaranteed!
I’d like to think that members of the gay community would be willing to forgo party vacations in Ft Lauderdale, Miami and Key West but somehow I doubt it.
If it passes then gay people and couples should choose not to do business in Florida or vacation here. See how Florida does without the gay dollar. It will affect straight people too. They’ll loose benefits too. Let’s see how long the amendment lasts without a bunch of lawsuits challenging it. If it passes if will prove just what bigoted state Florida is. Even constitutional amendments can be found unconstitutional.