Floridians raise
$1 million to fight same-sex marriage ban

By focusing on the situation of live-in heterosexual partners and tapping the expertise of veteran Democratic and Republican fund-raisers, a new Florida organization has raised more than $1 million in two months to campaign against a state constitutional amendment aiming to ban same-sex marriage.

Leading spokespeople for the group, called Florida Red and Blue, include Wayne Rauen and Helene Milman, an unmarried straight couple who have been together for 23 years. They worry that the amendment could take away the domestic-partner status they enjoy under Broward County law, The Miami Herald reports.

Florida Red and Blue's strategy mimics a 2006 campaign in Arizona, which became the first state in which voters rejected a same-sex marriage ban.

However, supporters of the ban are working diligently to get the measure on the 2008 ballot.

According to the Herald, the proposed amendment reads, ''Inasmuch as a marriage is the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife, no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized.'' Therefore, opponents are concerned that it could invalidate cities' and counties' domestic-partnership ordinances, although proponents contend it won't.

Officials with Florida4Marriage, which backs the amendment, say they need 18,000 more petition signatures to place the measure on the ballot.

''The only way [Florida Red and Blue] can win is to be deceptive,'' Florida4Marriage chairman John Stemberger told the Herald. "They can't argue gay marriage because they know they will lose.''

Florida4Marriage collected $5,700 in the last three months and has spent $14,218 more than its cumulative assets of $438,612 since January 2005, according the Florida Division of Elections.

The Republican Party of Florida donated $300,000 to Florida4Marriage in 2006, prior to Charlie Crist's election as governor, the Herald reports. However, on Tuesday, Crist said the party should not continue to contribute to the group. (The Advocate)