Source: Miami Herald
Opponents of a domestic partnership proposal for Miami-Dade government employees threatened county commissioners with political retribution at a news conference Friday.

''Every commissioner who does vote for the proposal will be held accountable,'' said Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the Christian Family Coalition.

In a statement released before the press conference the coalition of anti-gay groups said that voters "will know the names of those working against the best interest of working families and children."

The proposal defines domestic partners as unmarried adults who are at least 18, live together, are not blood relatives and consider themselves "immediate family." It gives domestic partners, regardless of sexual orientation, the legal right to visit each other in hospitals and jails. It would also let county employees buy health insurance coverage for their partners and partners' children.

A final vote on the package will likely come May 20, but it already has six cosponsors on the 13-member commission and appears to have at least the one remaining vote it needs for approval.

At the Friday press conference, Verdugo called out three commissioners by name -- Natacha Seijas, Dennis Moss and Rebeca Sosa -- saying they will cast the deciding votes.

Moss voted for the bill in committee, saying ''the world hasn't come to an end'' in the years since other large governments adopted such plans. He told The Miami Herald on Friday that he is ''planning on sticking with it,'' which would make him the critical seventh vote.

''We're a family and we need to have that sense of security,'' said Cristina Florez after a preliminary hearing on the measure last month. Her partner works for the county's aviation department. Florez's unborn daughter was due days later, and she said independent insurance will be practically unavoidable when she becomes a stay-at-home mother.

Such programs are increasingly common; Broward County, the Miami-Dade school district and the cities of Miami Beach and North Miami all offer similar benefits.

But it has proved controversial in Dade County. More than 100 people filled a normally vacant committee hearing last month before the measure won preliminary approval.

Few made explicit reference to social controversies of gay marriage and households -- indeed, many supporters identified themselves as heterosexuals who lived with a boyfriend or girlfriend -- but the question of morality certainly loomed.

"God doesn't cover domestic partnerships," said Nathaniel Wilcox, a minister at Apostolic Revival Center.

But Barbara Jordan, one of the six co-sponsors on the original package, said she did not want to sit as "moral judge." 

Commissioner Katy Sorenson said the plan "is a matter of justice and equality and compassion and common sense."

The county would partially subsidize partners' premiums under the plan, as it already does for spouses and worker's own children. Mayor Carlos Alvarez's administration said it costs around $2,200 per dependent and estimated 300 to 600 new dependents would sign up.

Opponents at Friday's conference -- who misread the administration's estimates and said they were expecting 900 new dependents at a price of nearly $2 million -- said the expense was too costly during the current budget crisis.

''We're not going to be pushed around by extremist groups who want to get their sticky fingers in our pockets,'' said Eladio José Armesto, publisher of the weekly newspaper El Nuevo Patria.

A flier distributed at the news conference focused on the financial angle, but some speakers turned to morality.

''We are not OK with the homosexual agenda,'' said Wilcox. "It's purely a homosexual agenda, a homosexual process."

Gay-rights groups have, indeed, advocated the proposal. But many supporters, including some of the county's most powerful labor unions, have emphasized the unmarried heterosexual couples who live together and would benefit from the program, too.

''My domestic partner, my wife, was in the hospital before we were married; I was not allowed to see her,'' said Jay Staley, president of the union that represents water and sewer employees, speaking at last month's committee hearing. "It took the Miami-Dade Police Department, bless their souls, to get me in her room to make some decisions."

Full article: Gay rights foes vow to fight with ballot | Maimi Herald
Dade domestic-partner benefits plan moves ahead | Miami Herald