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Gay, Poor Old Man

Life & Events > Another Nongay Man Looks at Gay Marriage
 

Another Nongay Man Looks at Gay Marriage


Florida, 28 other states don't give legal status to gay married couples


Michael Mayo
News Columnist
April 16, 2009

One
thing that heterosexual married couples take for granted is mobility.
If I got married in Massachusetts and moved to Florida, my marriage
would be recognized here.

Not so for gay couples.

As more
states allow same-sex marriage, the unequal treatment of married gays
by states like Florida should come under increasing legal scrutiny.

Thursday,
New York's governor is scheduled to introduce a bill that would
legalize marriage for gays. Last week, Iowa and Vermont joined
Massachusetts and Connecticut in allowing same-sex marriage.

But Florida won't recognize marriages of gays from those states or other countries where same-sex marriage is legal.

"You
get ticked off and angry, because we're being treated like second-class
citizens," said Allan Barsky, of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea.

Barsky
married his partner, Greg Moore, in his native Canada in 2003. But
Florida has never considered the marriage valid, because they are both
men.

And Florida has not recognized the 2004 Massachusetts
marriage of Debbie and Karen Lynskey-Lake since they moved to Weston in
2007.

This seems unfair, considering the state confers spousal
and parental rights to heterosexual couples that marry elsewhere and
move to Florida.

And it seems unjust, when you consider the 14th
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says, "No state shall deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Florida's
constitution and state law allow differing treatment of out-of-state
marriages based on sexuality. And federal law from 1996, signed by
President Bill Clinton, allows states to ignore same-sex marriages from
other states.

In November, Florida voters ratified a
constitutional amendment that restricted marriage to "a man and woman"
and said, "No other legal union that is treated as marriage or the
substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

Florida is one of 29 states with a constitutional ban on gay marriage.

It will take federal action -- either by courts or Congress -- to supersede the state ban.

Bruce
Rogow, an attorney and constitutional law professor at Nova
Southeastern University, said he doubts a challenge based on the equal
protection clause would succeed.

Robin Bodiford, an attorney and
gay rights activist, said the conservative makeup of the U.S. Supreme
Court could be a deterrent to federal lawsuits.

"There are a lot of hurdles, between the federal Defense of Marriage Act and all the state laws," she said.

Bodiford also said Florida activists are focused on other issues, like overturning the state's ban on adoptions by gays.

Robert
Rosenwald Jr., an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of
Florida, said he views the current situation as discriminatory and
unconstitutional. But he said the timing isn't right for a federal
challenge because the societal pendulum hasn't swung far enough.

His
advice for married gays who move to Florida: "Until uniformity is
achieved at the federal level, they'll have to do things the
old-fashioned way. That means paying an attorney a lot of money for
drafting a lot of different contracts."

Contracts spelling out
things married couples usually don't need relating to medical
decisions, inheritances, children, and potential breakups.

Barsky said Florida's married gays might have to fight backward.

"We
can't even get divorced, but that might be a way to chip away at this,"
he joked. "We can say, 'Hey, you didn't want us to get married, you
might as well let us get divorced.' "

Michael Mayo can be reached him at mmayo@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4508.





posted on Apr 16, 2009 8:07 PM ()

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