ABOVE: Rep. Michele Rayner, photo by Dylan Todd.
ST. PETERSBURG | State Rep. Michele Rayner is seeking to repeal obsolete language from Florida’s statutes targeting marriage equality.
Rayner won her historic bid to represent House District 70 (HD-70) last year, becoming the first Black, openly LGBTQ woman elected to the Florida Legislature. She filed House Bill 6017 (HB 6017) Jan. 4 to repeal statewide provisions targeting same-sex marriages, including her own.
“When I started being more vocal about my relationship with my now-wife, someone whom I deeply respect … told me that ‘I had ruined my career and my life,’” Rayner reflected in a viewpoint column for Watermark ahead of her election. “Just for talking about being queer.
“After the initial sting wore off, I decided to never let anyone tell me what parts of me had to be erased and which were worthy ever again,” she continued. “The full breadth and depth of my humanity matters, and I commit to being the kind of leader who will fight every single day to make sure that anyone living here knows that theirs does too.”
The bill would specifically repeal section 741.212 of the Florida statutes, which addresses domestic relations. More than six years after marriage equality came to Florida and nearly that long since it became federal law, it advises that “marriages between persons of the same sex entered into in any jurisdiction … are not recognized for any purpose in this state.”
“For purposes of interpreting any state statute or rule,” it concludes, “the term ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the term ‘spouse’ applies only to a member of such a union.”
If enacted, HB 6017 would remove the prohibition on the recognition of same-sex marriages, the definition of the term marriage and address the chapter’s language in full. The change would take effect July 1.
Fellow Democrats in the Florida Senate subsequently joined Rayner in addressing the antiquated statutes. The identical Senate Bill 558 (SB 558) was filed Jan. 12 by state Sen. Tina Scott Polsky, who represents South Florida’s District 29, and the similar Senate Bill 632 (SB 632) followed Jan. 13 by state Sen. Victor Torres, who represents Central Florida’s District 15.
If enacted by the Florida Legislature, SB 632 would repeal section 741.212 and require additional action. The Division of Law Revision would be directed to prepare a bill for the 2022 legislative session changing “the terms ‘husband’ and ‘wife’ to ‘spouse,’ the term ‘husband and wife’ to ‘spouses,’ and the term ‘husband or wife’ to ‘either spouse’ whenever those terms appear in the Florida statutes.”
