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Miami-Dade OKs Domestic Partner Benefits

by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
(Miami, Florida) The Miami-Dade County Commission voted 8-4 Tuesday to create a domestic partner registry for the county and to extend health insurance and other benefits to the domestic partners of county employees.
Both aspects of the plan are to be operational by late August.
Both the registry and the benefits for county workers will be open to those in unmarried relationships – both gay and straight. An estimated 900 couples are expected to register.
It will allow registered partners to have hospital rights in Miami-Dade healthcare facilities, jails and juvenile detention centers.
It also will provide partners with the same rights as spouses to visit a partner’s children and parents.

Tuesday’s vote makes Miami-Dade becomes the fourth and largest county in Florida to provide domestic partner benefits to employees and residents and capped a five year campaign by local activists to pass the ordinance.

“Decent, hard working employees of Miami-Dade County should not have to worry about the well-being of their families,” said Heddy Pena, Executive Director of Safeguarding American Values for Everyone (SAVE). “This ordinance provides much deserved peace of mind to all county employees who can rest assured knowing that their families and loved ones are insured, protected, and safe.”

“This is a huge victory for our city and these protections will help thousands of families to better care for one another,” said Stratton Pollitzer, Deputy Director for Equality Florida.
“Even as we celebrate today’s decision, we must go to work to protect these hard-won benefits by defeating Amendment #2 on the November 4th ballot.”

The proposed amendment would define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, would bar civil unions and is likely, opponents say, to be used to strip domestic partner benefits from all unmarried couples, gay and straight.

Pollitzer pointed to Michigan, where that state’s Michigan’s Supreme Court used a so-called “marriage protection” amendment to strike down domestic partner protections across the state.

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