Independent Florida Alligator 
http://www.alligator.org/articles/2008/10/31/news/local/081030_panel.txt
 
Panel Opposes Florida's Amendment 2
By FAITH REAVES, Alligator Contributing Writer
October 31, 2008
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(Sarah Hsu / Alligator Staff) Natalie Maxwell, president of the Gainesville Area National Organization for Women and moderator for a panel of women against Amendment 2, speaks Thursday night to a small audience before a discussion at the Pride Community Center of North Central Florida.
 
IN A GLANCE:
  • A panel Thursday emphasized Amendment 2's impact on all domestic partnerships.
  • Gainesville Area National Organization for Women held the panel at the Pride Community Center.
  • Four female panelists said they felt the amendment was discriminatory.
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    With Election Day approaching, a panel Thursday night encouraged voters to look at the entire scope of Amendment 2.

    Four female panelists spoke to about 20 people at the event at the Pride Community Center, sponsored primarily by Gainesville Area National Organization for Women, or NOW.

    The women represented three different organizations, but all spoke against the amendment, which would define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.


    Shelbi Day, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, said the amendment “added discrimination to the Constitution.”

    Day stated that the amendment would affect all domestic partnerships, including heterosexual couples, in areas of health insurance, medical decisions, funeral arrangements and more.

    Gaby Madriz, the Alachua County field organizer for VoteNoOn2.com, built on Day’s facts, saying that 90 percent of the couples that would be affected are heterosexual.

    She encouraged the audience to educate everyone on the consequences of the amendment if passed, saying it goes “way beyond gay marriage.”

    Jean Zeeb, a volunteer with the VoteNoOn2.com campaign, changed the subject.

    “Why aren’t we talking about gay marriage here?” asked Zeeb, who said Florida’s ban on civil unions had taken away her sense of social legitimacy.

    The fourth panelist, Anna Guest–Jelley, vice president of Gainesville NOW, said empathy for homosexual couples almost stopped her from marrying three years ago.

    Guest–Jelly said that marriage should be based on love and that “people can be trusted to make their own decisions.”

    Guest–Jelley, who was involved in planning the panel, said the event had been in the works for months to raise awareness with city residents.

    In Gainesville, a city known for being progressive, Terry Fleming, co–president of the Pride Community Center, said he thinks the amendment “will fail soundly.”
     
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