Governor Jeb Bush tilts toward gay-marriage ban in FL Constitution [View All]

Gov. Jeb Bush said Friday night he's moving away from a longstanding position that there's no need for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages.
At a fundraiser for the Florida Family Policy Council, a conservative group that backs such a ban, Bush said courts in other states overturning laws banning gay marriages have led him to the conclusion that a change to the Florida Constitution might be necessary.

"We may be at that point in our state," he said.

The statement to reporters at the Rosen Centre Hotel contained a message that could be no more pleasing to the conservative organization.

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The Florida Family Policy Council is the same organization that pressed lawmakers and the courts last year to keep Terri Schiavo on a feeding tube and now is working toward giving voters a chance to decide whether a gay-marriage ban should be written into the Florida Constitution.
The group's efforts to ban gay marriage have irked Equality Florida, a St. Petersburg-based gay-rights group.

"The governor is effectively fundraising for an organization that wants to put discrimination right into our constitution," said Brian Winfield, an Equality Florida spokesman.
"It's an embarrassment to have the Republicans cater to a rabid antigay group," he said. "The governor is supposed to represent all Floridians, and I don't believe that most people in Florida think like this group."

The council's petition to get a gay-marriage ban on the 2006 ballot fell short of the signatures needed, but it is on track for the 2008 ballot and has received $300,000 from the Republican Party.

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