Florida’s Amendment 2, passed in November 2008, established a clause in the state’s Constitution banning the union of same-sex couples in the state. The amendment defines marriage a union that can only be between a man and a woman. For the amendment to not have been passed into law would have required more than 40 percent of the state’s voters to vote against it in the election. The amendment passed with 62 percent of voters supporting it, preventing any same-sex couples from entering into a legal marriage in the state of Florida.
A frequent argument in favor of the amendment was that it would stop activist judges from performing gay marriages against the will of the state’s population. This argument was countered by the opposition, who argued that an amendment was not necessary because the state already had a law banning same-sex marriage. The opposition worried that the amendment’s wording was too vague, possibly leading to future problems for couples, both gay and straight, who are bound in a civil union instead of a marriage.
Social conservatives were extremely successful at getting out the vote after spending millions of dollars on their ballot drive for the amendment. The opposition was also well funded; it portrayed the amendment as overacted unneeded, and claimed that it could cause problems with partner benefits for straight couples who were not married, as well. Both sides spent over 5 million dollars on advertising their position on television and the radio.
The opposition campaign, called SayNo2, was headed by Michael Kenny, who stated during the entire election season that he thought the vote on Amendment 2 would be close. SayNo 2 was heavily funded by wealthy Florida citizens and received aid from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights organization that is a powerful force in legal affairs.
Even though same-sex marriage had been illegal in Florida since 1997, the supporters of ...