A coalition of Miami activists has called on a judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Florida’s gay marriage ban. The chairman of a group calling itself the Florida Democratic League says the lawsuit tramples on the rights of the people who voted for the constitutional ban in 2008.
Florida Democratic League Chairman Eladio Jose Armesto says if the lawsuit filed recently by six same-sex couples is successful, millions of Floridians’ votes would be effectively nullified.
“Absolutely no one has a right to demand that everyone else’s rights, that everyone else’s votes, everyone else’s equality under the law, be summarily scratched out by a judge’s pen," he says.
Armesto says marriage equality supporters should have to put the issue on a ballot just as opponents did in 2008.
“We as Democrats were very proud to campaign to have the institution of marriage revered in our Constitution," he says.
But Florida Democratic Party spokesman Joshua Karp says the Florida Democratic League is not affiliated with and does not represent the party’s views. The party itself officially supports marriage equality.