Well folks, here in Florida we're witnessing quite a sight: the last, desperate gasps of the anti-gay bigots. Now that the courts have declared, once and for all, that Florida can no longer treat LGBT Floridians like second-class citizens and must grant them the same right to marriage as everyone else (so just stop it, Pam Bondi!), the gay haters are scrambling around like cockroaches exposed to the light trying to figure out what to do. The state's county clerks in particular are in a tizzy, so many clerks have decided that if they aren't allowed to officiate just straight weddings they'll stop officiating weddings altogether. That'll show them! As the Tampa Bay Times has reported, the clerks of court in much of North Florida have decided to opt out of performing all marriages, but here in the Tampa Bay region, only the clerk in Pasco County (north of Tampa) has decided to put her bigotry on full display and cancel all civil marriage ceremonies in her office. "The problem is we can't discriminate," said Pasco County Clerk of Court Paula O'Neil in explaining her decision.
You heard that right folks. Paul O'Neil, a publicly elected official in the year 2015, sees it as a big "problem" that she can no longer discriminate against a certain class of citizens in her county.
Like many other Florida clerks who have decided to stop officiating all marriage ceremonies rather than enduring the horrors of marrying two people of the same gender, O'Neil is giving the BS explanation that part of the reason is financial:
Some of her rationale was financial: Pasco is experiencing a construction boom, generating extra work for her employees.
If this is true, why did she wait until a few days before she'd have to officiate gay weddings to make this decision? And wouldn't an increase in weddings bring in more financial resources to her office? Whatever. But O'Neil was quick to indicate the real reason:
Most of her staff who handle marriage licenses were "uncomfortable" officiating same-sex weddings, she said.
Of course, with someone like O'Neil as their boss, I expect that anyone on her staff who did NOT want to discriminate would feel "uncomfortable" saying so to her.
But there's plenty of good news. Many Florida clerks are not only gearing up to officiate same-sex weddings but are doing so with gusto, including in neighboring Hillsborough County:
As of Tuesday, the first day gay couples are permitted to wed, there will be large celebrations and ceremonies in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Key West. In Hillsborough County, Clerk of Court Pat Frank said that if her office is overwhelmed with couples hoping to marry, she will hold a large wedding in a downtown Tampa park at noon. She plans to waive the marital counseling class for those who want to be married on the same day they get their license.
Even in conservative North Florida, a handful of county clerks are bucking the trend of hate and agreeing to officiate any and all weddings:
There are outliers in the north - Escambia, Leon, Jefferson, and Madison counties — where clerks say they are committed to performing ceremonies for all couples, gay or straight.
"I think it's going to be a super Valentine's Day," Escambia County Clerk of Court Pam Childers said. "We're expecting a huge influx next Tuesday."
For those of you who don't know your Florida geography, Escambia County is in the far western end of the Florida Panhandle, home to Pensacola - certainly not a hotbed of liberalism, but apparently a hotbed of sanity and decency.
And if you want to let Paula O'Neil know what you think of her decision, you can find contact information here. Perhaps you offer her some consoling words as she struggles to deal with the "problem" that she can no longer discriminate.