Miami-Dade has passed an ordinance extending health care benefits to domestic partners. These benefits could be short lived, however, if the so called “Marriage Protection” Amendment passes in November.

Miami-Dade - Florida’s largest county – has created a domestic partnership registry and extended health care benefits to domestic partners. This will give basic legal protections and benefits to some 2.2 million Floridians. A special thanks goes out to SAVE Dade and the other groups that fought hard for these benefits!

By an 8-4 vote, the Miami-Dade County Commission passed into law the Domestic Partners and Family Health Coverage Ordinance. The county now has 90 days to implement the ordinance which gives county employees the ability to extend health insurance benefits to their domestic partners and the dependents of their domestic partners.

In addition, the ordinance creates a domestic partner registry that county employees, county residents and visitors can use to officially register a domestic partnership. These registries are important as many private sector companies rely on them to extend their own health and employee benefit packages to the domestic partners of their employees.

Other counties in Florida already have these benefits, like Broward (home to Fort Lauderdale), Monroe, and Palm Beach. These benefits could be short lived, however, if the so called “Marriage Protection” Amendment passes in November.

The broadly worded Amendment 2 looks to roll back these basic protections that many families depend on. While the proponents claim it is “protecting families and marriage”, the truth is that it tears apart families and weakens their abilities to care for one another.

So while this is exciting news and a great move forward, we need to make sure we defeat Amendment 2 in November so we can continue to move forward in Florida. For information on how to get involved in the campaign against the amendment or to make a contribution, go to www.SayNo2.com.

Waymon Hudson, the Homo Politico, is founder and President of Fight OUT Loud, a national non-profit organization dedicated to empowering the GLBT community to fight discrimination and hate. www.fightOUTloud.org