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With less than a month to go until election day, opponents of Florida’s so-called marriage protection amendment are ramping up their efforts to urge gay voters to defeat Amendment 2.
And getting no votes in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami Dade Counties is vital. Members of Florida Red and Blue, which created the “No on 2 Campaign,” are working to get a “supermajority” in the more progressive tri-county area to combat the expected pro-amendment votes in northern parts of the state.
The campaign kicked off their new advertising effort with a rally in Tallahassee Sept. 10. The organization will begin running television spots throughout the state, including the spot featuring Florida resident Michael Schaivo, the husband of the late Terry Schaivo.
The Schaivo case caused outrage among Florida conservatives who opposed Michael Schaivo’s right to end his wife’s suffering by stopping life support after Terry Schaivo fell into an irreversible vegetative state.
“If [proponents] really cared about respecting a legal marriage between a husband and wife they would have respected mine,” Schaivo says.
In South Florida, the city commissions in Lake Worth and West Palm Beach also passed separate resolutions opposing the measure. In Fort Lauderdale, however, city commissioners decided not to vote on a resolution opposing Amendment 2 Oct. 7. Proponents of the amendment showed up to City Hall to urge the city leaders to support it. Commissioner Carlton Moore, moved that commissioners refrain from taking an official stand. No other commissioner challenged Moore’s motion.
GLBT ally Cindi Hutchinson did not attend the meeting; however Commissioner Charlotte Rodstrom, who won her seat with substantial LGBT support, did not speak up to oppose Moore’s measure.
“The resolution should have been debated,” said openly gay mayoral candidate and former city commissioner Dean Trantalis. “Commissioner Rodstrom should have spoken up, instead she just sat on her hands and said nothing.”
Rodstrom and Hutchinson did not return calls for comment.
The resolution to oppose Amendment 2 is expected to come before the commission at its Oct. 21 meeting.
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