February 25, 2004
Florida fags file for fairness
More than 170 gay men and women sued a court clerk Wednesday, challenging the Florida law prohibiting them from obtaining marriage licenses and adding their voices to the growing nationwide crescendo on the controversial social issue.The suit, filed in Broward County court, is believed to be the first formal legal challenge to the state law specifying that marriage licenses be issued only to parties consisting of one male and one female.
"An idea whose time has come can never be stopped," said attorney Ellis Rubin, who represents the 175 gays filing suit. "This idea's time is now."
The suit names only Broward Court Clerk Howard Forman as a defendant. He issues wedding licenses in the county, following state laws.
......"We're people, human beings, American citizens. We pay our taxes," said James Stewart, a retired teacher from Dania Beach. "It's an old cliched line, but you know what? If we're going to pay our taxes, we deserve every right that should be granted to every American citizen."
Orlando Sentinal (via KC Star:)
Bringing the national war over same-sex marriage to Florida, a flamboyant Miami lawyer sued Broward County's clerk of the courts Wednesday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples.Posted by Norwood at February 25, 2004 11:28 PMIn an eight-page complaint, Ellis Rubin asked a judge to strike down Florida's law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and to compel the clerk to issue marriage applications to same-sex couples.
Standing with two of more than 170 gays and lesbians who joined the challenge, Rubin said the suit was "the first shot" in the war that President Bush declared Tuesday when he urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages.
"The fact that he's trying to amend the Constitution shows ... that it's all right with him to create second-class citizens," Rubin said. "It is neither all right nor constitutional."
Two of the named plaintiffs, musicians James Stewart, 61, and Wayne Ellis Clark, 54, agreed. They have lived together for ten years and were so incensed by Bush's support for an amendment, they called Rubin and asked how they could help.
"Sign up more people," Stewart said Rubin told the couple, so they did. Visiting Fort Lauderdale's gay community center and gay bars Tuesday night, they recruited more than 170 plaintiffs in two hours.
Rubin, who is known as much for his publicity stunts as for such sensational courtroom defenses as TV intoxication and nymphomania, said he had another motivation. He hopes to atone for what he considers a mistake made 27 years ago when he sued to overturn a Dade County law extending protections against discrimination to homosexuals.
The battle over that law, which was repealed and just recently reinstated, launched singer Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade. It also prompted the Florida Legislature to prohibit any homosexual from adopting a child in Florida.
"I was wrong," Rubin said. "I've come full circle."
......Howard Forman, Broward's clerk of courts, said he has no choice but to continue denying marriage applications to same-sex couples - but he does so reluctantly. In 1997, Forman was one of the few state senators who opposed the Florida law outlawing same-sex marriages.
"I thought it was discriminatory," he said. "And I don't believe it belongs in the U.S. Constitution now."
