A measure to grant domestic partnerships to unmarried couples will get its first hearing in the Florida Senate on Tuesday. Senator Eleanor Sobel, a Hollywood Democrat, says her bill would give unmarried couples – gay or straight – such rights as visiting their partners in the hospital.
Sobel says her bill wouldn't interfere with the 2008 Defense of Marriage Act, which bans gay people from marrying.
"But this bill is not about getting married", said Sobel. "This is about civil union, about registries, about a lot of people who would benefit from equal protection under the law."
The Defense of Marriage Act passed four years ago with a resounding 62% of the vote statewide. But LGBT advocates are hoping the climate is better now, since President Obama began to support their right to marry.