Mar. 17, 2004
By Cara Buckley

KEY WEST - As gay-rights supporters whooped and cried outside, Key West's city commission passed resolutions Tuesday night that support same-sex marriage while condemning President Bush's push to have it constitutionally banned.

''Every movement has a start, and a lot of times it's controversial,'' Key West Mayor Jimmy Weekley said moments before the measures went to a vote. ``We're joining in to assure the civil rights of all Americans. We need to be a spearhead of this movement. This is just simply the right thing to do.''

Weekley was so confident that the measures would go through that he scheduled a break into the commission's agenda after the vote, where the resolutions were read on the Old City Hall's steps to a waiting crowd.

That the measures were entirely symbolic -- same-sex marriages still cannot be performed in Key West or Monroe County -- seemed to matter little to the 200-odd people gathered before Weekley, their emotions running high.

Pressed against her girlfriend of 10 years, Susan Kent, a real estate appraiser, said Key West's support of same-sex marriages sent a distinct message to other communities: ''This island is unique, it's not tolerance, it's acceptance of diversity,'' she said. ``You could do this too.''

Around them swirled a sea of same-sex couples, many of whom had been together for decades.


FIRST RESOLUTION

The first resolution, sponsored by City Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt, urged that same-sex marriages performed elsewhere be recognized in Florida and nationwide; decried Bush's initiative to have them banned; and pushed for private and public entities to extend benefits to their employees' domestic partners, gay or straight.

The second resolution, advanced by Weekley, called for the county clerk, Danny Kolhage, to legally opine whether the county clerk's office can issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Weekley already knew the answer: Kolhage publicly stated that he was bound by Florida law, which strictly defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and declares any marriages between same-sex couples performed elsewhere as dissolute within the state. Under state law, only county clerks can issue marriage licenses.

Though the second resolution was moot, Weekley insisted it was necessary to send the statement that equal rights ought to be extended to all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation.

City commissioners voted 4-1 on both resolutions simultaneously under television camera lights and before a near-capacity audience.

Of the seven members of the public who addressed the commission about the resolutions, only one person, a stooped, soft-spoken man with a hearing aid, implored that the measures be voted down. A show of support came from the publisher of Key West's Cuban community paper, El Faro, who said he abhorred Fidel Castro's subjugation of homosexuals in Cuba, and asked that such discrimination not be repeated here.

At the vote, recently elected Commissioner José Menendez said neither he nor his constituents backed same-sex marriage. He voted against the measures to audience hisses. After expressing strong reservations, City Commissioner Carmen Turner voted for the measures, causing the crowd to leap to its feet and cheer.


CAMPAIGN

Key West gay rights activists also timed Tuesday's vote with the launch of a White Ribbon campaign, in the hope that the ribbon is adopted nationwide as a symbol of support for same-sex marriage, much as red ribbons heightened awareness of HIV/AIDS.

''Whether this issue affects you personally or not, it affects us all,'' said Geoff Leonard-Robinson, pastor of Key West's Metropolitan Community Church. ``We have some work to do.''

Then the pastor smooched his boyfriend and the crowd sang God Bless America, flags aloft.

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