Marriage certificates are going to start to look a little different in Florida these days -- on Monday, marriage certificates in the Sunshine State will be changed to reflect the legalization of gay marriage statewide, as the applications will say “spouse” and “spouse” instead of “bride” and “groom.”
It was just nine months ago that Florida began to allow same-sex couples to wed. The battle to legalize gay marriage was long in Florida, where voters struck down the prospect of gay marriage in a 2008 constitutional amendment. Last August, a Florida judge ruled the ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court made the wide-reaching decision that same-sex marriage bans on a state level are unconstitutional.
Now state officials will be sending new marriage forms to court clerks to reflect the change. Clerks will begin using the new forms Oct. 1.
Equality Florida, a statewide organization advocating for gay and lesbian rights, submitted over 1,200 signatures to the Bureau of Vital Statistics in support of the measure.
Despite the change for marriage certificates, the battle isn’t entirely over for other legal documents. Karla Arguello and Cathy Pareto, the first same-sex couple to legally wed in Florida following the Florida judge’s ruling against the gay marriage ban, are both still waging a court battle over birth certificates.
The Miami-based couple filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging Florida hospitals won’t allow same-sex couples to list their names on their children’s birth certificates. The couple says that a Florida hospital wouldn’t let them list both their names on their twins’ birth certificates after they were born Aug. 6.
The couple argues the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics is violating the U.S. Constitution by “falsely indicating” that a child has only one parent.
"The state’s refusal to recognize that they have two parents and to list both of us on the birth certificates is demeaning and hurtful," Pareto said in a statement.
Equality Florida chimed in on the case, with co-founder and CEO of Equality Florida calling the issue both “wrong and mean-spirited.”
Smith said Florida was behind the times when it came to allowing same-sex couples to put their names on birth certificates.
"Pretty much almost every other state has already done this. They did it; they did it right," she said. "Florida's going to waste time, waste money and leave parents who should be celebrating the birth of their child in uncertainty because both parents aren't included on the birth certificate."
Florida isn’t the first state where legal action has been filed to try to rectify the birth certificate issue. Although many states moved quickly to change the rules on birth certificates, some states like Utah and Arkansas only did so after legal action.
