Jan 15, 2008 7:58 pm US/Eastern
More Signatures Needed For Same-Sex Amendment Ban
TALLAHASSEE (CBS4) ―
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Florida's Amendment Regarding Same-Sex Marriages
CBS
A proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage in Florida may not make it on the ballot this November.
Organizers learned on Monday they haven't collected enough signatures.
Miriam Richter has been with her same sex partner for 13 years and hopes that one day Florida allows them to get married.
"I would like the legal benefits of marriage," Richter told CBS4's Tiffani Helberg. "I hope so I really hope so I'm looking forward to that day."
Florida4Marriage.org has fallen 22,000 voter signatures short of the 611,000 needed to place the amendment on the ballot.
The group has a Feb. 1 deadline.
The organization had received financial help from the Republican Party of Florida, but since Gov. Charlie Crist came into office, the party has stopped giving the group money.
State law already bans same-sex marriage,.
Opposition groups such
HRC Back Story has organized and raised money to try to defeat the amendment, which would need approval from 60 percent of voters.
We want to make sure that we protect the marriage as being the legal union of one man and one woman not two men not two women," said Nathaniel Wilcox of Florida4Marriage.org.
Richter said her main concern is a threat to domestic partnership benefits. She said other states have passed similar measures and affected these benefits.
"Rright now as a domestic partner I am treated as immediate family for medical issues and that's very important and if that were to be taken away that's very scary for me," said Richter.
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