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FL: Jacksonville May Consider Anti Discrimination Ordinance

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

Jacksonville gay rights activists are meeting with business leaders to get their support for a measure that would ban discrimination based on sexual preference. Jacksonville is the state’s only major metropolitan area that doesn’t ban discrimination against gay people.

The city’s current ordinance prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations on the basis of race, religion, disability, sex, marital status, national origin, color and age. Proponents say the measure would help the local economy.

If the measure goes before Jacksonville’s commission, opposition would be expected from religious groups and social conservatives. They would see the change as an affront to traditional moral values.

[End of Article]

Full Story from the Miami Herald

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FL: Attorney General Won’t Appeal Ruling Striking Down Gay Adoption Ban

Friday, October 22nd, 2010

Florida Gay AdoptionFlorida’s 33-year-old ban on gay men and lesbians adopting children is dead following Friday’s announcement by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum that he would not appeal a court ruling that upheld a 2008 decision that struck down the law.

Last month, a 3-judge appeals court unanimously upheld the ruling that found the law to be unconstitutional and to have “no rational basis.” The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) had already said it would not challenge the ruling.

“Following the decision by our client, the Department of Children and Families, not to appeal the decision of the Third District Court of Appeals, it is clear that this is not the right case to take to the Supreme Court for its determination. No doubt someday a more suitable case will give the Supreme Court the opportunity to uphold the constitutionality of this law,” McCollum said in a statement.

Full Story from On Top Magazine

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

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FL: State Won’t Appeal Ruling Against Gay Adoption Ban

Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) announced Tuesday evening that it would not appeal a court ruling that found the state’s gay adoption ban unconstitutional, CNN reported.

Last month, a 3-judge appeals court unanimously upheld a lower court’s ruling that found the law to be unconstitutional and to have “no rational basis.”

“We had weighed an appeal to the Florida Supreme Court to achieve an ultimate certainty and finality for all parties,” DCF spokesman Joe Follick told CNN. “But the depth, clarity and unanimity of the DCA opinion – and that of Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman’s original circuit court decision – has made it evident that an appeal would have a less than limited chance of a different outcome.”

Full Story from On Top Magazine

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

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FL: 20 Gay Couples Marry in Pensacola

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

It looked like any other wedding ceremony at times. Brides, grooms, flower girls, even mothers-in-law-to-be on the sideline.

But the 20 couples who wed at Seville Square on Saturday weren’t typical of most who wed in Northwest Florida. They were gay couples, vowing to love and honor each other even though Florida does not recognize gay marriages.

The “Wedding of the Hearts” ceremony was part of a daylong, gay pride festival Saturday at the downtown park.

Full Story from PNJ.com

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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FL: Appeals Court Upholds Earlier Ruling: Ban in Gay Adoptions Unconstitutional

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

In November, 2008, Judge Cindy Lederman ruled that Florida’s ban on gay adoption is unconstitutional. The ruling allowed Frank Martin Gill to move forward with adopting two brothers, ages 4 and 8, who had been in Gill’s foster care since 2004.

In the 53-page 2008 ruling, Lederman wrote: “It is clear that sexual orientation is not a predictor of a person’s ability to parent.” The state of Florida appealed the ruling, and today a Miami appeals court ruled against the state:

“The 3rd District Court of Appeal issued its decision Wednesday affirming a lower court’s decision that the ban is unconstitutional. Florida is the only state with a law flatly banning gays from adopting children without exception. Gays can be foster parents in Florida. A Miami-Dade County judge ruled the gay adoption ban unconstitutional in 2008, but the state appealed. The case will ultimately go to the state Supreme Court. Martin Gill and his male partner, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, filed the lawsuit in their attempt to adopt two brothers, whom they have cared for as foster children since December 2004.”

Full Story from Towleroad

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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FL: Oak Park to Revise Cohabitation Laws to Recognize Gay/Lesbian Families

Monday, May 31st, 2010

It is illegal for a gay couple to have two or more foster children living with them in Oakland Park. That’s because city rules forbid more than three people who are not related by blood, marriage or adoption to cohabit.

“Isn’t it something that in this day and age we have to deal with something like this?” said Commissioner Suzanne Boisvenue. “I think it’s wrong; I think it’s discriminatory.”

At a recent meeting, she instructed city staffers to change the legal definition of family in the zoning law. She said she wants the three-person restriction removed, and language added to ensure that “family” includes domestic partners, regardless of gender, as well as foster children and all legal guardians. Boisvenue asked city staffers to present their proposed revisions to the city commission in September for a vote.

Full Story from the Palm Beach Post

Click here for gay marriage resources.

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FL: Transgender GOP Candidate for Congress Opposes Gay Marriage

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Remember Donna Milo, the Cuban transwoman who’s running as a Republican Congress? She believes marriage should be between “a man and a woman” and that her “triumphs are based on [her] abilities, not on a label or a crutch.”

That’s nice, except that the crutches she’s supposedly never used are the same ones that allowed her to become a US citizen, get married and have kids.

According to Milo’s website she was born in Cuba in the early 1960s and came to America at age three. As such, she benefited from the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act which changed the legal status of Cuban immigrants to grant them “permanent resident status” with access to legal work, medical care, government welfare, and unemployment benefits. So Milo’s right; she didn’t depend on a crutch so much as a automatic wheelchair.

Full Story from Queerty

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

To subscribe to this blog, use the rss feed on the right, or use the form at right to join our email list. You can also email us at info@purpleunions.com. Or find us on Facebook – just search for Gay Marriage Watch (you’ll see our b/w wedding pic overlooking the Ferry Building and Bay Bridge in SF). We’re also tweeting daily at http://www.twitter.com/gaymarriagewatc.

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FL: Leon County Passes Gay Rights Law

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Facing a packed chamber of opponents, yesterday Florida’s Leon County, home to the state capital, passed a sweeping LGBT rights law.

In a 5-2 vote, the Leon County Commission approved the controversial changes to the county’s current human-rights ordinance. The changes are designed to deter discrimination and include more protection for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community.

Full Story from Joe.My.God

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

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FL: Couples “Unlawfully Wed” to Protest Gay Marriage Ban

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

The wedding ceremonies that took place Tuesday at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law had a few differences from the real deal. Same- and opposite-sex couples alike took part in the faux weddings, intended to show support for marriage equality. The vows announced that participants were “unlawfully” wedded and included a statement of opposition to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which bans same-sex unions.

“It’s to get the message out that people in our generation are speaking out against the Defense of Marriage Act,” said Karen Middlekouff, a first-year law student and president of the student group Outlaw. “We believe in legal equality for everybody.”

Outlaw, an alliance of straight and gay students, sponsored the first-time “marry in” at the college. Middlekouff said the event was an annual tradition at her previous school, the University of Delaware, and she decided to start the event at UF when she revived the Outlaw chapter here.

Full Story from Gainesville.com

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FL: Leon County Considering Gay Anti Discrimination Ordinance

Sunday, March 21st, 2010

Lisa Comingore, an assistant attorney general for the state of Florida, knows what it’s like to be forced out of a job over sexual orientation. Comingore, 39, took a job as a staff attorney with a state agency Nov. 1, 2006, and by the following February, she’d put in her notice. She’d been told that if she didn’t, she;d be fired.

The reason why, she says, had nothing to do with job performance – a supervisor wanted her out because she’s a lesbian. Comingore, a Tallahassee resident who was recovering from breast cancer, decided to leave on her own. She knew if she was fired, she’d have a hard time landing another state job and keeping her health insurance. “It just felt extremely unfair,” Comingore said. “Just being discriminated against and having no recourse – it’s very demoralizing.”

Currently, members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community aren’t protected from workplace discrimination in local, state or federal law. They also aren’t protected from housing discrimination in state or federal law. The county’s housing code has a protection for gays and lesbians, but LGBT advocates say it has no enforcement mechanism and is ineffective.

Full Story from Tallahassee.com

Click here for gay marriage resources in Florida.

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