In a 6-1 vote, the Pinellas County Commission approved a countywide domestic partnership ordinance on Jan. 15. The ordinance is the first of its kind on the west coast of Florida that incorporates an entire county and residents can begin registering in approximately three months.
Commissioner Norm Roche was the only dissenting vote.
Couples who have registered in the cities of Clearwater, Gulfport and St. Petersburg will pay a reduced fee to be included in the new ordinance and will need to register with the county. County residents who have not yet registered within a city can expect to pay a $50 fee to join the registry.
The ordinance allows unmarried couples – both gay and straight – access to a handful of rights, such as hospital visitation, funeral planning and access to each other in jail. Last year, Gulfport, St. Petersburg and Clearwater all enacted their own domestic partnership registries and Largo has been in talks to create its own.
The new countywide registry will prevent the need for every city within the county to adopt its own ordinance.
Newly elected commissioner Charlie Justice was happy to support the registry, but added that protecting the citizens of Florida should be a priority of the state government.
“Would I prefer that the Florida legislature take the lead and do this?” Justice asked in the chambers. “Yeah. But this vote will build a certain amount of momentum to where the legislature will say, ‘you know what, maybe it is time.”
The new ordinance will not protect couples who are in counties that do not recognize domestic partnerships, but it will cover all of Pinellas County. A statewide registry, which has been proposed in Tallahassee, is needed in order to protect partners across the Sunshine State.
