After the Tampa City Council voted unanimously Thursday morning to approve a domestic partnership registry for unmarried couples in Tampa, the question one might have is: What took you so long?
Not that anybody publicly expressed such a sentiment. It was all bonhomie in the Council's chambers, as speaker after speaker effusively praised the board for passing the measure, and specifically Yolie Capin, who introduced the proposal last month after she learned that the city of Orlando had passed a similar ordinance late last year.
The Domestic Partners Registry will give unmarried domestic partners — straight and gay — the ability to visit each other in the hospital, make medical decisions for an incapacitated partner and be notified as a family member in case of emergency.
The ease with which the vote came also illustrated the vast gulf on social issues that stands between the governments of the city of Tampa and Hillsborough County, a difference that was noted by several speakers who came before the Council.
This article appears in Mar 15-21, 2012.