The Florida Family Policy Council,associated with Focus on the Family, reports that they have obtained the necessary signatures for a ballot initiative that would amend the constitution to ban gay marriage. 612,000 signatures were obtained and the group is still collecting more. The State of Florida already has a law banning gay marriage so this is an attempt to bring out the intolerant conservative religious voters in the presidential election by countering rising blue tide in Florida to the republics. As you know Florida is the largest swing state in the country and the right wing will do anything to make sure Florida does not go to the Democrats. We all saw what happened during 2000 and expect more brown shirt tactics to follow. Heck, if you can't win on your ideas or record put some hate filled bull shit on the ballot. That will attract the cretins to vote for you.
As the AP reports:
The measure will set off a fierce battle in the state. Vibrant gay communities thrive in South Florida and other urban areas, but the state also is part of the Bible Belt, where gay marriage is a hot-button issue for a wide range of churchgoers, not just the religious right.
The state Republican Party has financially supported the measure and its leader thinks it will help bring his members to the polls, but Republican Gov. Charlie Crist is lukewarm toward the proposal.
Charlie Crist, Republican Governor is not a homophobe. In fact, it has been rumored for years that the Governor himself is gay. So hopefully Crist will lobby against this bill and use the Bully Pulpit to lend his weight against the measure. In fact Crist is quoted as saying "It's not an issue that moves me," Crist said Thursday in Tampa. "I'm more of a live-and-let-live kind of guy."
If the republicans nominate Rudy, and that does not look likely, then the strategy of winning the state based on hate will prove unlikely. But Huckabee with a record of animosity towards gays may motivate the conservatives to go to the polls. My hope is that the country is so sick of these tricks by the republicans that attack gays in order to win the White House. I think most of the country has figured this Rove trick out and will not fall for it again.
The AP continues:
Backers say the amendment is necessary to prevent courts from overturning the existing law on constitutional grounds. They say gay marriage should be banned because children should not be raised in homosexual families. Florida is the only state with an unambiguous ban on adoption by homosexuals, individually or as a couple.
John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer who heads the coalition backing the measure, denied that the proposal is meant to drive conservative turnout in the presidential election. He noted the coalition tried to get on last year's gubernatorial ballot but failed. The breakdown among signers is 49 percent Republicans, 35 percent Democrats and 16 percent independents, Stemberger said.
"We believe kids need a mom and a dad, very simply," Stemberger said. "Moms and dads bring something different to the table. Dads are not optional."
The coalition called Florida4Marriage.org gathered the signatures largely through efforts by churches, and Stemberger was joined for the announcement by representatives of the Florida Catholic Conference and Florida Baptist Convention.
The Florida Republican Party has made financial contributions to Florida4Marriage.org in the past and may offer more help, GOP state chairman Jim Greer said.
"This is an issue that Republicans have stood for and are supportive of," Greer said. "Any time there is an issue on the ballot that is one of the party's core issues it will help the turnout."
The Democratic response:
Florida Democratic Party spokesman Mark Bubriski said he didn't think the amendment would help Republicans.
"It's sad that the Republican Party - the amendment's largest contributor - thinks it can scare conservative voters into going to the polls to 'protect' marriage when, in fact, same-sex marriage is already illegal in Florida," Bubriski said in an e-mail.
The ideal situation would be that they do not get enough signatures certified by the State. The report from the AP continues:
To get on the ballot, the measure needed 611,009 valid petition signatures. A state Division of Elections Web site showed the measure was still 253 signatures short, but Stemberger said elections officials had not yet verified some signatures that would put the measure over the top. The deadline is Feb. 1.
Stemberger said the coalition now is gearing up for an intense campaign against what he called "the usual suspects of left-wing groups."
Opponents say they are waging a bipartisan campaign focused on portraying the amendment as a measure that would go beyond the existing law to affect unmarried heterosexual couples, particularly the elderly, as well as gays and lesbians. It's a strategy used to defeat a similar amendment in Arizona, the only state where such a ballot proposal has failed.
"It's introducing discrimination to our constitution and it is more than potentially setting the stage to take existing rights away from people who are not just gay," said Gregory Wilson, a spokesman for Fairness for All Families.
The debate centers on a phrase in the proposed amendment that's not included in the current law. Both limit marriage to "one man and one woman," but the amendment also would ban any "other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof."
Similar provisions in other states' same-sex marriage amendments have been used to take away domestic partnership rights of unmarried couples regardless of gender, said Stephen Gaskill, spokesman for Florida Red and Blue, another opposition group.
"It's government saying this is the only sanctioned relationship that you can have," Gaskill said. "It's really overstepping the role of government."
Stemberger argued the Florida provision is narrower and would protect rather than harm domestic partnership rights. Gaskill, though, questioned the need for it if that's true.
Stemberger called efforts to steer the debate away from gay marriage "a pathetic and dastardly strategy."
"If they want to bring on a debate, a robust debate about homosexual marriage, game on," Stemberger said. "But we're not going to allow them to lie to the people of the state of Florida about what this marriage amendment is about."
So there you have it folks. Another attempt to steal an election for the Republicans. May the republicans continue to eat themselves alive and even if this makes it to the ballot it will fail as it did in Arizona.