Earlier today, Florida state Judge Zabel lifted her stay of the marriage equality ruling in Miami-Dade County, and marriages of same-sex couples began in that county. Now (at midnight in Tallahassee) federal district Judge Hinkle's stay is lifted, and marriage equality is now the law of the land throughout all of Florida.
From The Tampa Bay Times:
Now comes the rest of Florida. Court clerks have deployed extra staff, re-worded paperwork and reserved parks and courtrooms to handle the gay couples expected to line up Tuesday for the historic — and long-awaited — chance to be married in the Sunshine State.
While some counties opened their offices at midnight, Tampa Bay area clerks kept to their regular schedules. But it promised to be no ordinary day at local government offices. Hillsborough Clerk Pat Frank is planning a mass ceremony at Joe Chillura Courthouse Square Park. St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman will officiate one couple's 2 p.m. wedding at City Hall.
That doesn't mean that anti-gay groups have stopped trying to stop marriage equality in Florida, however.
From bradenton.com:
On Monday, Florida Family Action Inc., a not-for-profit group, sued R.B. “Chips” Shore, clerk of the circuit court of Manatee County, in an attempt to halt his plans to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples beginning Tuesday.
The complaint sought an emergency request for legal relief.
In the suit, the organization said Shore’s “official ministerial duties include the duty not to ‘issue a license for the marriage of any person ... unless one party is a male and the other party is a female.’”
After Shore’s office closed at 5 p.m., he received an email with a copy of an order dismissing the action in the complaint, according to Lori D. Tolksdorf, director of courts.
AG Pam Bondi issued a statement earlier today:
"The judge has ruled, and we wish these couples the best," Bondi's press secretary, Whitney Ray, told The Associated Press in an email.
via
The New Civil Rights Movement
Florida's anti-gay Liberty Counsel also issued a statement:
Clerks in the remaining 66 counties will issue the licenses but with a different twist in five of them.
Mihet explains: "They will stop officiating or solemnizing marriages altogether, although they cannot stop issuing licenses. So they will license homosexual marriages but they will not officiate any marriages in order to avoid being forced to officiate a homosexual marriage against their conscience."
“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman,” one clerk told a Florida newspaper. “Personally it would go against my beliefs to perform a ceremony that is other than that.”
Mihet says homosexual activists are likely very happy because the "destruction of marriage has been their goal all along," he claims.
via
Good As You
But, the clerk in Pasco County (north of Tampa) has changed her mind.
Want to see a cool map? Here you go:
Congratulations Florida! Photos of the happy couples and more below the fold.
Here is a video summarizing the earlier (today) events today in Miami-Dade County.
If you want to see even more, there are many more pics of happy couples at #FLMarriage