Approved
City votes to recognize domestic partnerships
THERESA CAMPBELL | Staff Writer
theresacampbell@dailycommercial.com
Nearly 100 people erupted into applause when Tavares became the first city in Lake County to approve an ordinance to establish a Domestic Partnership Registry, giving domestic partners visitation rights to medical facilities, and the right to be involved in emergency notification and important medical decision-making matters.
"I was expecting 50 to 75 supporters and we far exceeded that, so I was very happy," said Dale Gruber, 68 of Paisley, pleased by the packed council chambers on Wednesday night as members voted 4-1 for the ordinance that will go into effect in 90 days.
"The reason why Tavares was important was because of Waterman Hospital, and the city council was gracious enough to include non-city residents in this ordinance," Gruber said. "It even includes people like me out in the boondocks like Paisley, because it's important when we use the hospital to be able to say 'we're registered as domestic partners' and the hospital in Tavares is in the city limits."
Joyce Ross, public communications director for Tavares, said the council felt the registry was needed.
"They just felt it was important that Tavares take the lead in this issue," Ross said. " We are the first in Lake County to do this, and the comment was as the county seat, it was appropriate that Tavares take the lead."
Council members Lori Pfister, Kirby Smith, Norm Hope and Mayor Robert Wolfe voted in support for the registry, while Vice Mayor Bob Grenier voted against it.
"I was very impressed by the level of commitment and involvement from the community and they're the ones who took this up as an issue, because they're the ones personally impacted by this," said Joyce Hamilton Henry, director of Mid-Florida Regional Office for the ACLU.
"It was very exciting to see how many people that came out in support of it," she said. "It was very impressive to see the sea of red."
Henry said the registry will make a "big difference" in the lives of many couples and families as they go about making decisions on a daily basis in situations of emergencies regarding health and their children.
Through the registry, unmarried couples will be able to get access to important protections that would otherwise be denied to them, including access to domestic-partner health-insurance coverage, hospital visitation rights, emergency notification and rights to certain medical decision-making.
"Individuals living in straight and gay relationships don't have the same privileges as straight married couples have and sometimes take for granted," Henry said. "These couples don't have the opportunity to get notifications or have the ability to make decisions. Sometimes hospitals and other facilities don't recognize these couples or hold biases toward theses couple who have been living together for years."
Henry said the domestic partnership registry not only allows individuals to make medical decisions, but Tavares' ordinance will also allow couples to plan funeral arrangements, be allowed jail visitation and make educational decisions for a child who has same-sex parents or guardians.
"Married couples have more than 1,000 benefits, and the last thing a person should have to worry about during a stressful situation is whether he or she will be allowed to see his loved one at a facility," Henry said. "These are very much needed protections. This is about equal protection (under the law). Equal protection recognize relationships and equal protections for couples and not about defining marriage."
The concept is not new to Central Florida. This month marks the one-year anniversary of Orlando's domestic-partnership registry, which has served as the model for seven Florida municipalities that created similar registries in 2012: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Gulfport, and Orange and Volusia counties.
Pinellas County approved its registry on Jan. 15, and Hillsborough and Sarasota counties are expected to follow, bringing the total population with access to a domestic-partner registry since last year to more than four million.
On the day Orlando approved its registry, attorney Mark Meeks called it an historic event for the city and a monumentally important event for the gay community.
"It will be the first time in our lives that our families are recognized by our government," he said.
ACLU representatives have been working throughout the state with local governments to help create domestic partnership registries because they believe it is an "equal protection" issue, Henry said. Because of an amendment to Florida's constitution forbids same-sex couples from marrying or creating a civil union, there is no other way for such couples to obtain some of these protections, the ACLU contends.
Gruber said he spent Thursday writing six thank-you notes to all of Tavares city council members and the city administrator to express his gratitude for passing the Domestic Partnership Registry ordinance.
"The city administrator was very helpful in getting this passed, and I even wrote a thank-you to the guy who voted against it," Gruber said. "I told Bob Grenier that even though he couldn't support it now, I hoped that he comes to appreciate its merits."
Gruber said plans are also in the works to approach Mount Dora leaders and Lake County Commission about following Tavares in creating a registry, too.
Friday, February 15, 2013 - www.dailycommercial.com/slpapp