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Battle Heats Up Over Florida's Marriage Amendment

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By LINDSAY PETERSON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2008

On the surface, Amendment 2 reads like a ban on gay marriage. But in the final weeks before the election, people on both sides of the debate are traveling the state, arguing that the effects of the amendment could reach far beyond gay people who seek to marry.

Black pastors in favor of the state constitutional amendment are holding rallies to spread the message that it would help save the black family from disintegration.

Opponents say the amendment's broad language could endanger pension and health care benefits for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples living in domestic partnerships.

Both camps have attracted dozens of elected officials and community leaders to their sides. The vote is on Nov. 4.

The pro-Amendment 2 Web site features pictures of Gov. Charlie Crist and state Attorney General Bill McCollum, who support the measure along with dozens of other elected officials, including Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., and U.S. Reps. Ginny Brown-Waite, Brooksville; C.W. "Bill" Young, Indian Shores; and Gus Bilirakis, Palm Harbor; all Republicans.

Florida's Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink has joined the advisory board of the opposition, Florida Red and Blue, SayNo2. Other members include U.S. Reps. Kathy Castor, Tampa; Alcee Hastings, Miramar, and Kendrick Meek, Miami; all Democrats.

The Florida Education Association, Florida Professional Firefighters and the NAACP are also against the measure.

The amendment's ballot summary says it "protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

Preacher Says It's Necessary

This creates the kind of family environment that children need, said Harry Jackson, who is leading a series of Pastors Briefings across the state with John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer leading the amendment drive. Jackson, from Hope Christian Church in Lanham, Md., has been working across the country to ban same-sex marriage. He and Stemberger were in Tampa last week and will be in Orlando today.

The amendment "has been cast as anti-gay. That is really not the issue," Jackson said, noting that most black children are born to single mothers. "I'm looking at the potential end of marriage as we know it in my community.

"Kids need to have both a mom and a dad who are joined in a Biblical marriage," Jackson said. "There's something that God put in us in terms of male and female that is to the benefit of the family and the child. We need a mom and a dad, not two dads and two moms. ... Even Mom and Grandma isn't enough. We see that in the ghetto today."

Florida law already bans gay marriage, but amendment supporters say a constitutional amendment is needed in case a judge overturns those laws.

Despite Jackson's assertion that the amendment campaign is not anti-gay, its Web site offers church sermons that sharply condemn homosexuality, not simply same-sex marriage. The site also offers "action kits" to church officials who want to promote Amendment 2.

Amendment 2 opponents say it goes far beyond simply banning gay marriage and is part of an effort to discourage all same-sex relationships.

"From the start we wondered what was the real purpose of this," said Mark Pud- low, spokesman for the Florida Education Association. "We learned that in other states where this has passed, they have gone after people who have domestic partner benefits through their employers."

The city of Tampa, for instance, could come under fire for offering benefits to its employees' domestic partners, said Derek Newton, of Florida Red and Blue, SayNo2. And that would apply to homosexuals and heterosexuals.

The campaign has produced a commercial featuring a man and woman who registered as domestic partners in Broward County. The woman, Helene Milman, 67, can't remarry or she'll lose her deceased husband's Social Security benefits.

She and her partner, Wayne Rauen, 59, worry that Amendment 2 would outlaw their partnership and prevent them, for instance, from visiting each other in the hospital.

Their fears are valid, said the Florida Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research. After analyzing the amendment, it found that if domestic partnerships are deemed substantially equivalent to marriage, making them invalid could take away a partner's ability to share health care coverage. Also it could endanger a person's rights to make health care decisions for a partner or visit a partner in the hospital.

'A Bunch Of Baloney'

The primary backer of the amendment, Orlando lawyer John Stemberger, discounted these arguments, calling them "a bunch of baloney."

The Florida Supreme Court has ruled that Amendment 2 concerns the "single subject" of marriage, he said. "It will not affect domestic partnerships. ... That is a fraudulent and dishonest argument."

Recent polls show that Amendment 2 is falling slightly short of the 60 percent approval rate it would need to pass. Fifty-five percent of Floridians support it, according to a Quinnipiac poll, slightly less than the 57 percent found by Mason-Dixon.

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834 or lpeterson@tampatrib.com.

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