Same-Sex Marriage Lawsuit Filed In Florida!!

Six same-sex couples on Tuesday filed a lawsuit challenging Florida’s gay marriage ban. Catherina Pareto and Karla Arguello, Dr. Juan Carlos Rodríguez and David Price, Vanessa and Melanie Alenier, Todd and Jeff Delmay, Summer Greene and Pamela Faerber and Don Price Johnston and Jorge Isaias Díaz joined their lawyers and representatives from the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Equality Florida at a press conference in Miami Beach. The couples filed their lawsuit in state court in Miami.

“Florida is our home, it is where we are raising our child, and where we want to get married,” said Pareto, who has been with Arguello for 14 years and with whom she has 15-month-old son in a press release. “Karla and I wish for our family the same things that other families want. We want to build our lives together, provide a safe and caring home for our child, and share in the responsibilities and protections of marriage.” 

Florida voters in 2008 approved a state constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman.

Equality Florida announced shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court last June found a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional that the organization was looking for plaintiffs to challenge the Sunshine State’s gay nuptials ban.

Former Gov. Charlie Crist, who is challenging incumbent Gov. Rick Scott as a Democrat, in 2006 signed a petition in support of the constitutional amendment. The one-time Republican who has faced persistent questions about his sexual orientation late last year said he now regrets his decision.

“I most certainly support marriage equality in Florida and look forward to the day it happens here,” wrote Crist on his Facebook page last May after Delaware and Rhode Island extended marriage rights to same-sex couples. (more here)