Florida Voters Asked to Define Marriage

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- Amendment 2 defines marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman and voters must decide if that definition belongs in the Florida consititution.

The citizen-sponsored amendment will be decided on November 4 with both sides reaching out to voters to score votes.

Alain Raymond handed out pamphlets to voters encouraging them to vote against the amendment.

"It is divisive and and it's actually quite underhanded," said Raymond who works for Fairness for All Families, an organization opposed to the marriage amendment.

Pastor Tom Messor with Trinity Baptist Church says there's nothing underhanded about the amendment. "This does one thing and one thing only, defines marriage as between one man and one woman."

When approaching voters Raymond mentions the impact on domestic partnership health benefits.

"In the state of Florida there are over 360,000 couples that depend on domestic partnership benefits, for their health benefits or visitation rights," said Raymond.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida has a stake in the outcome with the company opposing the amendment.

"We feel it's is going to have a major impact on our ability to provide benefits for domestic partners," said Randy Kammer, vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy.

Messor says the intent of the amendment is to only define marriage and take take away benefits.

"They don't want to debate how healthy marriage is, traditional marriage is in a society. They want to do a scare tactic and makre it about something that it is not."

Twenty seven other states already define marriage in their constitutions. In Florida amending the constitution requires 60% support from voters.

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