cityXtra Magazine

Week in Review

Without much time to turn around and think this week flew by. WOW what historical and incredible week we have experienced in Florida. OUR first Gay Marriage Ruling in Key West was victorious. YES Florida has it's first Gay Marriage Ban case ruled as unconstitutional.

The AG Pam Bondi filled an appeal within two hours halting the cause temporary. "We're taking it minute by minute," said Aaron Huntsman, the gay plaintiff in the case, along with his partner, William Lee Jones.

Bondi's move could elevate gay marriage as an issue in the November elections, likely to arrive long before the constitutional issues are resolved by state and federal courts.

Bondi's hold on gay marriages could remain in place until the appeal is resolved, which could take months or years, legal experts said. Or Garcia could lift the stay, allowing same-sex marriages in his Florida Keys jurisdiction.

"The flood gates would open, and everybody would run down to the Keys to get married," said David Weinstein, a former state and federal prosecutor now in private practice in Miami.
 
The ban had been approved by 62 percent of voters in 2008.

"The court is aware that the majority of voters oppose same-sex marriage, but it is our country's proud history to protect the rights of the individual, the rights of the unpopular and rights of the powerless, even at the cost of offending the majority," Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia wrote in his opinion.

A similar case is pending in Miami-Dade County.

"We can now add Florida's voice to the urgent need for the Supreme Court to take a freedom to marry case and bring the entire country to national resolution, ending marriage discrimination across America," Evan Wolfson, a prominent same-sex-marriage advocate, said in a statement.


Judge Garcia concluded that "a citizen's right to marry is a fundamental right that belongs to the individual."

His decision was the latest in a series of more than 20 victories for same-sex-marriage supporters since the Supreme Court ruled on the question last year. Earlier this month, a federal judge in Kentucky that state's ban on gay marriage.