As same-sex couples celebrated the official end of the state's ban on gay marriage across Florida by tying the knot Tuesday, one couple had a particularly notable ceremony. St. Pete residents Bob Wallace and JoJo Phipps-Wallace were wed on the steps leading up to City Council chambers in a ceremony officiated by St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman.
“I'm very honored to do something today that should have been legal in this state a long, long time ago,” Kriseman said as the ceremony began.
It was a brief but moving ceremony that lasted about seven minutes. Family, friends and media packed the wide hallway leading up to the makeshift altar as the two exchanged vows, then rings. Afterward, the couple, who said they have been together for three years, briefly addressed the media on the significance of finally being able to have a marriage the state recognizes.
“As someone who came out in the 1970s and had to hide, to worry about what could happen to me if I stepped out and let anyone know who I was, this day for me tells me that I have the same equal rights as anyone else in the State of Florida. It's taken a long time for us to get here," said Bob Wallace, a St. Petersburg physician.
He stressed a need for tolerance among all groups before the couple walked upstairs to fill out paperwork.
“They asked, simple as that," he said. “To me this is something that 's long overdue. I'm glad to see this day come. It's just a real honor.”
Earlier in the day, Hillsborough County Clerk Pat Frank conducted a ceremony that married scores of gay couples. On Monday, couples in Miami-Dade County were able to marry starting in the afternoon.
Last month a federal court denied the state's request to further delay same-sex marriages in Florida, a delay put into place to allow for appeals after Judge Robert Hinkle struck down a 2008 constitutional amendment banning gay marriage in a Tallahassee court. The state tried to play it off as though Hinkle's decision only applied to one county, but Hinkle issued a blunt clarification on New Year's Day.
It's unclear whether Attorney General Pam Bondi will continue trying to fight gay marriage. In a News Service Florida report, she wishes the newly married couples well and insists her fight against same-sex marriage was never political — she was only trying to uphold the Florida constitution. But her grasp of Hinkle's ruling still seems a little skewed: "So now gay marriage is legal in Miami at least and in a couple other counties," she told reporters (bolds added).
Actually, Ms. Bondi, it's legal all over the state. Perhaps you'd better brush up on your constitution.
This article appears in Dec 25-31, 2014.