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Parts 6 & 7 in a 7-part investigative series
Republican political operatives are about to give anti-LGBT hate groups just what they crave: a lopsided defeat for gay rights in the deepest South. NCRM’s 7-part investigative series reveals how progress toward marriage equality in other states is threatened by current events in Florida.
- Part 1 – LGBT Groups Oppose Equal Marriage Campaign
- Part 2 – Leaders Retreat
- Part 3 – Counts for Workers, Signatures, and Dollars
- Part 4 – Party Plans
- Part 5 – Haters Wait With Bated Breath
- Part 6 – Promising the Impossible
- Part 7 – Prognosis
Part 6 of 7: Promising the Impossible
On 26 June 2013, an Equal Marriage Florida (EMFL) press release claimed that the constitutional amendment would “guarantee the freedom to marry.†Several weeks later, an EMFL Facebook video claimed that the amendment initiative is a “guaranteed freedom to marry.†The image above, taken from EMFL’s Facebook page, states the same.
Neither claim is true.
The proposed amendment guarantees nothing. It would repeal only the constitutional ban on same-gender civil marriage; the statutory ban would continue, because, in Florida, only lawmakers can repeal laws.
No Florida lawmaker dares to propose full marriage rights. Even Democratic lawmakers refuse to suggest anything beyond domestic partnership. After 18 straight years of GOP control, 63% of Florida’s lawmakers are Republicans who vow they’ll never repeal the current marriage ban, and whose party vows to ban equal marriage nationwide. So, even if EMFL collects one million signatures, and even if it spends six million dollars, and even if marriage appears on the ballot, and even if 60% of the voters pass it, the only result would be that lawmakers gain permission to do something which none of them want to do, and which the party to which 63% of them belong has vowed never to do.
Full marriage equality has been adopted in 18 states (CA, CT, DC, DE, HI, IA, IL, MA, MD, ME, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, RI, VT, WA), and cases are pending in the federal appeals courts for 3 additional states (NV, OK, UT). But no prior campaign was ever as secretive as Equal Marriage Florida is. Among many unanswered questions, the oldest four still echo the loudest.
• Is Dr. Vanessa Brito aware that passage won’t guarantee any marriages?
• Did she create EMFL to pour profit into her now-defunct consulting firm?
• Was she duped into running a campaign that others know will fail?
• Did fellow Republicans engage her to run a stealth campaign?
Part 7 of 7: Prognosis
To meet the goals published on its Web site, EMFL faces a 1 February 2014 deadline. By then, it must deliver to the Florida Elections Division at least 683,149 signatures, collected from at least 14 of the state’s 27 congressional districts, already verified by county elections supervisors, for which EMFL must pay $68,315.
EMFL Chairman/Treasurer Vanessa Brito wouldn’t say how many of the six million dollars she has in hand, or when the rest will get collected, or how the funds are being spent. Her campaign finance reports show all zeroes.
EMFL Media Coordinator Heather Gray wouldn’t disclose how many of the one million signatures she has in hand, how many are already verified by state officials, or when the rest will get collected, or when they’ll get verified.
EMFL’s proposed amendment does not guarantee any same-gender couple the right to marry.
Every few days, Equal Marriage Florida asks donors to mail in more money.
