- Chip Weiner
- Activists talk strategy to combat the Hillsborough County Commission's domestic partner registry vote
Twelve days after the Hillsborough County Commission rejected a proposal for a domestic partner registry, more than 50 activists gathered at the Children's Board of Hillsborough County in Ybor City to plot how they might be able to reverse the vote.
Equality Florida's Nadine Smith said the goal is for Hillsborough County to "stop embarrassing us, and embarrassing itself, and actually catch up with the rest of the region and the rest of the state."
After more than an hour of discussion, various groups assembled to show that a registry would receive support from people and places in the community like businesses, faith-based groups, and USF.
Smith said the four commissioners who opposed the measure made a mistake and are unaware of how popular such registries are. She said her group robo-called thousands of voters in both Victor Crist and Sandy Murman's districts, and more than 80 percent supported a domestic partner registry.
This article appears in Jan 31 – Feb 6, 2013.