Florida to vote on gay-marriage ban in November

TALLAHASSEE - Florida voters will be asked to decide in November whether to write a ban on same-sex marriage into Florida's Constitution.

Florida4Marriage's amendment would define marriage as "the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife," and that "no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

It has drawn attacks from opponent who say the amendment could deny rights to unmarried heterosexual couples in addition to gays and lesbians.

Florida already has a law banning same-sex marriage.

Social conservative groups such as Focus on the Family, Florida Family Action and the Florida Baptist Convention launched the constitutional drive in 2005, arguing the state's law could be invalidated in courts much as it was in Massachusetts.

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