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Gays sue Broward clerk for same-sex marriage licenses BY MAYA BELL, The Orlando Sentinel from the Web, February 26, 2004 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, Feb. 25 -- Bringing the national war over same-sex marriage to Florida, a flamboyant Miami lawyer sued Broward County's clerk of the courts Wednesday for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. In an eight-page complaint, Ellis Rubin asked a judge to strike down Florida's law defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman and to compel the clerk to issue marriage applications to same-sex couples. Standing with two of more than 170 gays and lesbians who joined the challenge, Rubin said the suit was "the first shot" in the war that President Bush declared Tuesday when he urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. "The fact that he's trying to amend the Constitution shows ... that it's all right with him to create second-class citizens," Rubin said. "It is neither all right nor constitutional." Two of the named plaintiffs, musicians James Stewart, 61, and Wayne Ellis Clark, 54, agreed. They have lived together for ten years and were so incensed by Bush's support for an amendment, they called Rubin and asked how they could help. "Sign up more people," Stewart said Rubin told the couple, so they did. Visiting Fort Lauderdale's gay community center and gay bars Tuesday night, they recruited more than 170 plaintiffs in two hours. Rubin, who is known as much for his publicity stunts as for such sensational courtroom defenses as TV intoxication and nymphomania, said he had another motivation. He hopes to atone for what he considers a mistake made 27 years ago when he sued to overturn a Dade County law extending protections against discrimination to homosexuals. The battle over that law, which was repealed and just recently reinstated, launched singer Anita Bryant's anti-gay crusade. It also prompted the Florida Legislature to prohibit any homosexual from adopting a child in Florida. "I was wrong," Rubin said. "I've come full circle." Given Rubin's inactivity on gay-rights issues and his penchant for publicity-seeking cases, gay-rights activists expressed reservations about his latest challenge. Nadine Smith, the executive director of Equality Florida, a statewide gay-rights organization in Tampa, said it would have been preferable if Rubin had discussed his strategy with advocates who have been fighting in the trenches for years. "We don't want to create bad law by pursuing a suit that's not well-thought-out," Smith said. "Now the question is: Is it a publicity grab, or a passionate challenge to an unjust law? Time will tell." Bruce Winick, now a University of Miami law professor who 27 years ago fought for the Dade ordinance, said Rubin's case could have profound repercussions across the state and nation - if successful. "I would not say this is frivolous," Winick said. "Whether gays have a right to marry under constitutional concepts of due process and equal protection is a significant issue and an open question." Howard Forman, Broward's clerk of courts, said he has no choice but to continue denying marriage applications to same-sex couples - but he does so reluctantly. In 1997, Forman was one of the few state senators who opposed the Florida law outlawing same-sex marriages. "I thought it was discriminatory," he said. "And I don't believe it belongs in the U.S. Constitution now."
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