Wednesday, December 31, 2014

St. Augustine Welcomes Gay Weddings

Some Florida court clerks are threatening to abolish courthouse weddings when Gay marriages commence January 6, 2014.

Gays and Lesbians are welcome in St. Augustine, where we won a federal court order for Rainbow flags in 2005, where we won "sexual orientation" as a protected class in CIty of St. Augustine Fair Housing ordinance in 2010 and in City of St. Augustine Fair Housing and employment nondiscrimination ordinances in 2011, and won equal pension rights for survivors of City of St. Augustine Gay employees in 2012. Our St. Johns County Clerk of Courts, the Honorable Cheryl Strickland, and her lawyer, Geoff Dobson, are prepared for weddings commencing January 6, 2014.

I was proud to write the first article for an American Bar Association publication on Gay marriage in 1991 and proud to bring and settle the Duane David Rinde v. Woodward & Lothrop Gay rights domestic partnership equal discount benefits case in Washington, D.C. and Montgomery County Maryland in 1989-90.

Errant court clerks who are not "comfortable" with Gay marriage need to retire.

They were elected to perform secular duties.

Got to love these court clerks in Duval, Clay, Baker, Santa Rosa and Okaloosa Counties. Bigotry helps encourage G/L spouses to marry here in St. Augustine, where God intended. Diversity is good for business. Bigotry is bad for everyone. G/L people will not wish to live, work or marry in bigoted places. St. Augustine welcomes diversity.

As one perceptive Florida Times-Union reader commented: "Those who want to marry simply drive a few miles down the road to St Johns [C]ounty and get married. St Augustine is a great venue for that."

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