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Miami Beach to
Vote Again on Domestic Partnerships

Miami Beach to
Vote Again on Domestic Partnerships

Miami Beach's commissioners will vote Wednesday to affirm the city's domestic-partnership policy after Florida passed Amendment 2, invalidating rights for residents in nonmarital relationships like domestic partnerships offered through cities and counties.

Miami Beach's commissioners will vote Wednesday to affirm the city's domestic-partnership policy after Florida passed Amendment 2, invalidating rights for residents in nonmarital relationships like domestic partnerships offered through cities and counties.

The city started offering instituted health benefits for gay and straight partners of city employees in 1998, according to Safeguarding American Values for Everyone, a local advocacy organization. The city then added a domestic partnership registry in 2004. The vote on Wednesday is to reaffirm the city's standing policy.

"We are already seeing early steps in Tampa to undermine the city's domestic-partnership policy because of Amendment 2. The elected officials in Miami Beach are being pro-active," SAVE executive director C.J. Ortuno said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Florida Family Association, a conservative Christian nonprofit group, has been looking for ways to change the Hillsborough County Charter in 2010. Hillsborough County does not offer domestic partnerships, but the city of Tampa, which is located in Hillsborough, does. FFA executive director David Canton said the organization is raising the issue mainly because the city of Tampa elected a gay county commissioner, Kevin Beckner, the St. Petersburg Times reported November 21. While the amendment to the Hillsborough Charter would not affect city employees, Canton said the plan is to gain momentum from that campaign to influence the election of city council members and the mayor in 2011. (Michelle Garcia, Advocate.com)

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