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A Marriage Amendment Now On The Ballot
Florida voters will now have the chance to vote on whether or not to add an anti-gay marriage amendment to the state constitution. But it has picked up resistance from some retirees.
You will get the chance to vote on an anti-gay marriage amendment this fall.
A group called Florida4Marriage gathered enough signatures to put an amendment to the Florida Constitution on the ballot that would define marriage as strictly between a man and a woman.
The group says this is the right thing to do for families and reflects a well established human tradition.
"Marriage in Florida shall only be one man, one woman and no other combination," Said Michael Madsen who is the co-chairman of the Florida4Marriage campaign.
He says this amendment is just like the 1997 law that Florida voters approved.
However, the proposal is raising resistance from an unexpected area, retirees.
Barbara Devane with the Florida Alliance for Retired Americans says that this amendment would hurt elderly couples who choose to live together but not get married.
"They don't want to mess around with their pension plans, they don't want to lose social security benefits that they may have gotten from a deceased spouse and on and on," Devane said.
She says this law would spell the end of civil unions.
Madsen dismisses that claim as false pointing to lawsuits surround the 1997 law that have not ended private civil unions.
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