It appears that Orange County mayor Teresa Jacobs is re-warming to the idea of a countywide domestic partner registry.
Jacobs sent LGBT activists into a flurry of strategy and targeted communications when in an impromptu press conference Jan. 9, she proposed an alternate to the domestic partner registry. A downloadable form that would allow any individual to assign any resident gay or straight – to make their important medical, end-of-life and other decisions.
LGBT activists viewed this as Jacobs’ going back on her promise to truly weigh the registry option by proposing a much weaker system. The organized during a town hall meeting Jan. 9, with plans for letters, emails and phone calls to Mayor Jacobs, telling her why the registry is important.
In an interview with Orlando Sentinel blogger David Damron, which Damron published Jan. 13, Jacobs said any county-based registry system would likely require an ordinance.
“I want to make sure that if I adopt something, it does something meaningful and worthwhile,” Jacobs told the Orlando Sentinel. “At this point, based on the level of research that we’ve conducted, the ordinance would be helpful.”
Mary Meeks, attorney, LGBT activist and Orlando Anti-Discrimination Ordinance Committee (OADO) member, said the mayor’s words put the county registry “back on track.”
“An ordinance is what makes it a registry, and without that, it’s something else,” Meeks said. “Saying [Jacobs] is going to do an ordinance means she’s going to do a registry.”
Steve Triggs, spokesman for the mayor’s office, said in an email to Watermark that the mayor will continue to research the issue, and she has meetings with stakeholders, such as funeral homes, and representatives from the gay community scheduled.
“Contrary to what some have reported, she remains open to the idea of an ordinance and some form of registry and plans to bring the matter to the County Commission for discussion in the coming weeks,” Triggs wrote.
“We give her a huge amount of credit for looking past the media firestorm in the past week and focusing on what’s important to the people of Orange County,” Meeks said. “We look forward to working with her to craft the actual policy and hopefully get it before the board within a couple of months.”
There’s a key meeting between Jacobs and LGBT leaders set for Jan. 26.
“We’re willing to wait for Mayor Jacobs to tell us where to go from here,” Meeks said.
On Jan. 12, the city of Orlando began registering couples under a domestic partner registry. Orlando’s domestic partner registry defines domestic partnership, outlines the registration process and provides an overview of protections provided within a domestic partnership that has been recognized by the City of Orlando. Those protections include hospital visitation, rights to health care decisions, correctional facility visitation, rights to funeral/burial decisions, guardianship and the right for both domestic partners to participate in the education of their children.
