Family Affair: Miami attorneys Jeff Hearne and Mark Balzli are among the first gay couples to register as domestic partners in Miami Dade County. They are raising a son, Aidan.
(Photo by Juan Carlos Rodriguez)
By JUAN CARLOS RODRIGUEZ
AUG. 14, 2008, FLoridai Blade

One step toward equality
Miami Dade’s DP registry brings assurance to countless unmarried couples.

August 18 promises to be a landmark day in Miami-Dade County for the multitude of unmarried couples living in long-term, committed relationships.

At 10 a.m. the Miami-Dade community services department will open the county’s first domestic partnership registry. County commissioners approved the measure May 20, with an 8 - 4 vote.

The decision was hailed as a thorough, if not long overdue, victory for the gay community and for countless unmarried straight couples.

As the department prepares for what could be dozens of gay and straight couples lining up on the ninth floor of the county building to be among the first to register, Amendment 2—the statewide measure to recognize only one-man-one-woman marriages—looms on the Nov. 4 ballot.

If 60 percent of Florida voters approve it, Amendment 2 could render the county registry null and void.

That threat, however, is not enough to scare off as many as 30 couples whom GLBT organizers expect to register Monday.

Sonya Perez, a spokesperson for the community services department, said the county will provide the couples a waiting room and an on-premises notary Monday to help finalize the documents of those couples who have not yet finished their paperwork. County workers will be specially assigned to handle the amount of applications on Monday as well, Perez said.

For two Miami couples, attorneys Mark Balzli and Jeff Hearne, and gay activist Kirk Arthur and chemical engineer Alfredo Iglesias, the event is more than just a photo op.

Both couples say the registry is a small step toward a larger goal: that of marriage equality.

Both couples have children. Balzli and Hearne, together for six years, are raising their son Aidan, who, at 8 years-old, is obsessed with dinosaurs. Arthur and Iglesias’ 19 year-old son Alfie lives on his own in San Diego, Calif.

Together the couples represent two successful gay families at different points in their lives. And each have taken measures to get some form of legal recognition for their union. The attorneys were among the first couples to register as domestic partners in Miami Beach in 2003. Arthur and Iglesias were married July 11 in California. Their marriage, however, is not legally recognized in Florida due to current state laws.

Both couples said they were determined to step forward to be officially recognized here at home.

“The legislation says the county will honor our partnership,” Balzli said. “It’s not going to hurt. We have an eight-year-old boy and we don’t want to have issues.”

The registry is especially beneficial to GLBT families with children: Florida is the only state in the U.S. that specifically outlaws gay couples from adopting together, and while the registry does not overturn that law, it does provide limited legal recognition of guardianship for both parents.

The Miami-Dade registry will also give couples more leverage in emergency circumstances to deal with their finances and property in case one of them passes away.

“It’s not marriage, but it’s a start,” said Orlando Gonzales, SAVE’s interim executive director. “After we achieve [marriage] then there will be another celebration.”

For the meantime, Gonzales said, the new registry provides an opportunity for the public to break through preconceived notions about the gay community. He said the registry will help “quantify” how many GLBT people are in serious committed family relationships. That information, he said, will help inform future policy making.

Like most gay couples who’ve built lives together, Arthur and Iglesias say they don’t need a certificate to define their relationship, after 13 years together in a committed relationship.

But Arthur and Iglesias said the new registry provides an extra measure of security. Aside from establishing a legal recognition of their bond, being registered will serve to keep things, “straight” with the public.

“It solves a lot of the ambiguities,” Iglesias said.

“It just feels good,” Arthur chimes in. “You have a word that people understand, and there’s no question.”

Miami-Dade’s registry is the latest controversial issue to swing in the gay community’s favor. In 2002, SAVE was instrumental in beating a repeal of the county’s Human Rights Ordinance which barred sexual orientation discrimination. The county was at the center of the 1970s gay movement when county commissioners defeated Anita Bryant’s Save Our Children campaign, which would have repealed a local Dade county ordinance that prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Heddy Peña, SAVE’s former executive director, played a key role in winning commissioner’s support for the Miami-Dade registry. She said while she recognizes the historic nature of the inaugural date, she is not quite ready to celebrate.

“For the moment it’s a step forward,” she said. “But in the long run, depending on what happens with Amendment 2, it could be a step back.”

Peña stepped down from SAVE last week to focus her efforts on the campaign to defeat Amendment 2, which threatens to disband the registry if approved by voters Nov. 4. She said she will be “showing up” to the county building Monday.

SAVE’s board of directors will likely announce its choice for its next executive director, Gonzales said. In the meantime the organization will focus on defeating Amendment 2, and thus protecting the rights that the Miami Dade registry provides.

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