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Florida still sorting out gay marriage issues as U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear case (w/video)

 
Anthony Siegrist, 16, from left, Wade Siegrist, 14, Peyton Siegrist, 14, Lucy Siegrist, 8, Jesse Siegrist, 40, and Terry Siegrist, 42, pose at their home in Clearwater on Thursday. 
Anthony Siegrist, 16, from left, Wade Siegrist, 14, Peyton Siegrist, 14, Lucy Siegrist, 8, Jesse Siegrist, 40, and Terry Siegrist, 42, pose at their home in Clearwater on Thursday. 
Published April 26, 2015

Jesse Siegrist didn't need to be asked twice.

When the Florida branch of the American Civil Liberties Union told her it was looking for parents to speak against a bill that would allow private adoption agencies to discriminate against same-sex couples based on religious grounds, the Clearwater mom packed her family into their car and drove to Tallahassee.

She would have one minute to address members of the House, hardly enough time to explain how much it meant to her and her wife, Terry, to have adopted three children from the foster system. Shortly after she spoke, the House passed the bill, described by proponents as a measure to protect religious "conscience."

"My boys were pretty distraught about it," Siegrist said. "But I told them, this is not defeat."

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on same-sex marriage on Tuesday, there is perhaps no better example of Florida's internal divisions on gay rights than the competing bills recently proposed in the state Legislature.

This month, lawmakers in Tallahassee have been asked to consider a bill that would repeal the state's ban on adoptions by same-sex couples — a vestige of the Anita Bryant era that has been unenforceable since 2010 — and a second measure that would allow private adoption and foster care agencies to reject same-sex couples.

While the Legislature has passed the former and sent it to Gov. Rick Scott, the fate of the "conscience" bill in the Senate remains in doubt.

Another bill before the Legislature that would have prohibited workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity never made it out of its subcommittee. Although 10 counties in Florida, including Hillsborough and Pinellas, have passed similar protective laws, throughout much of the state it remains legal to fire people or deny them housing for being gay or transgender.

"You can get married today in Florida and fired the next day for being gay," said Jim Brenner, a plaintiff in the federal lawsuit that successfully challenged Florida's same-sex marriage ban last year. "There's still a lot of work to be done."

Florida began issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples on Jan. 6, and though there is no official count, in the months since advocates say that hundreds of same-sex couples have exchanged vows or had their out-of-state marriages recognized here. Some gay couples "wedlocked" in broken marriages have been able to get divorced, and the adoption process has become significantly simpler for married same-sex couples.

The state's bureaucracy has been slow to adjust.

Today, marriage licenses still refer to a "bride" and "groom," and despite repeated inquiries, the Department of Health, which oversees the license forms, has been unable to answer basic questions about whether it plans to replace the gender-specific language. Elsewhere, there are signs of change — another state agency will soon allow married same-sex couples who work for the state to include spouses in their pension plans.

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Public opposition still exists — polls suggest that across the southeastern United States, states remain roughly split on whether gay couples should be able to marry. Since January, more than a dozen Florida clerks of court have chosen to stop holding marriage ceremonies for anyone rather than extend them to gay couples.

Yet many gay rights advocates say that same-sex marriage is on its way to becoming a fringe issue. In a recent report by the Williams Institute, a California-based think tank, researchers projected that by 2016, about 60 percent of Floridians would support gay marriage.

"There's a lot of things to be worried about in terms of what's going on in the Florida Legislature, but I do think in the marriage arena that we've put this to rest," said Daniel Tilley, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Florida. "Marriage is here to stay."

Tilley and others' confidence is owed largely to widespread speculation that the Supreme Court will make same-sex marriage a national right, a decision that would force the remaining states to drop their bans. For states like Florida, where gay marriage is legal but the Attorney General's Office has continued to fight it in both state and federal courts, the Supreme Court's decision could bring an end to opponents' efforts.

But if the justices decide that states can choose whether to extend marriage to same-sex couples, then Florida would be thrown into "legal chaos," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

Unlike some other states, where gay marriage became legal because of state court or legislative decisions, gay couples can get married throughout Florida because a federal judge in Tallahassee declared the state's same-sex marriage ban to be a violation of the U.S. Constitution. If the Supreme Court disagrees, that ban, supported by more than 60 percent of voters in 2008, could go back into effect.

Gay couples' marriages would likely remain valid, though in other states that have experienced windows of legal gay marriage, the state governments have not always recognized those unions.

This situation would put same-sex marriage advocates in the position of having to decide whether to initiate another statewide referendum, or work through the state courts.

"I don't expect that to happen," Simon said. "I can't imagine the same court that struck down the Defense of Marriage Act is going to do anything but follow the same line of reasoning."

Contact Anna M. Phillips at aphillips@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3354. Follow @annamphillips.