LGBT couples should have the full civil rights of other citizens. I am a happily married heterosexual man, but it pains me that our gay and lesbian friends do not have equal rights, just as it pained me in 1969 that my African American friends did not have equal rights in Washington, DC.

Commissioner Higgenbotham should reflect that a Christian discriminating against homosexuals is much like a Moslim discriminating against Christians--both acts are "squarely based on ...faith and personal beliefs."

Basic civil rights belong to all Americans.

Joe Caudle
Tampa

I believe the right decision was made.

Can't believe some people feel entitled to deny others in such a way. Higginbotham says his position is based onhis faith.... is his job to be a preacher?

This has nothing to do with rights. It has to do with those who own the media and our gov't wanting to break down the Christian moral foundation in the United States. For some reason Christian faith is seriously in their way. It only takes a glance at prime time television to see the social engineering they are attempting, and sadly, having some success at doing. I lived the gay lifestyle from age 15 - 36....I'm now 54. I thought I was born that way because I had attractions to men, because the media had then begun to tell me I was born that way, because I wanted to believe it, and because I didn't have a Christian moral compass telling me differently. Now I know not to let feelings dictate who I am or what I do. I also see the lies now. To get back to the subject...I didn't find restrictions in people and life around me because of my gay lifestyle. The people who knew me treated me as equally as they did anyone else. Sure there were people who were ignorant and treated me badly because of my lifestyle, but they were the tiny minority. The gay rights issue and gay people are being used for a bigger agenda...and they certainly don't realize it. They think enlightenment has come. (conclusion in next comment)

I have to make another point about this larger issue. When the argument was put forth that giving homosexuals special status could open the door to those who want to have sex with children or animals it was poo pooed as not being a fair comparison. That such horrible things could never be considered ok. I recently read this story about pushing past same sex laws, "Man Accused Of Having Sex With Donkey Challenges Constitutionality Of Laws Banning Sex With Animals" and he has public defenders (Marion County) pursuing this line of defense. They are saying partly that because the law in Florida is based on morality instead of consensuality or harm it should be struck down. So where does this road take us? The gay rights issue has nothing to do with rights. People, for the most part, treat the people they know as people. I've seen the rules bent in hospitals and many places and situations because of that.

Then I Guess you’re for LGBT couples being able to be married then. First I like to say I had had no choice at all to be 100% strait and I sure that LGBT did have that choice either. And even no matter what religion we all god’s children so being against civil unions is also godless.
But even for those who actively hate LGBT but this law would of helped poorer strait couples as well that simply cannot afford to get married

By the way you become a Health care surrogate which is second tier to family and grants no rights to partners children’s activity’s

To everyone reading this... I am gay, in a relationship with my boyfriend Brian and loving it :)

I always chuckle when Christians talk about preserving the *sanctity of marriage* as though they took their marriage vows seriously. The overall divorce rate for non-churchgoing married couples is 50%, churchgoing Christians is slightly lower at 48% and a whopping 60% for Evangelicals who attend religious services regularly. It's too soon to tell if gay marriages will have similar results but clearly the *sanctity of marriage* is a joke. Better come up with some other dumba$$ reason for your hated and bigotry. The majority of Americans have hearts and are for gay marriage.

While religious views can inform personal decisions, they have no place in the purview of public policy. The United States is not, and never has been "Christian" in any official snese; in fact both the Constitution and historical preecedent militate against such a conclusion. Unless the County Commission can articulate a "Compelling Government Interest" for refusing a domestic partner registry, this decision is not only bad policy, but unconstitutional as well. Remember the names of any Commissioner who votes on public policy due to religious reasons and vote against him or her in the next election...

Consolidate. Here we are, forty-some years after our last try but now with a population overwhelmingly urban. We’re ready. It’s a new century. Solutions that impact on a huge population are being made at the county level by people who have discredited themselves more times than can be remembered.
Politically we’re nowhere: 85% unincorporated. The city of Tampa is actually but a tenth of the county physically. Tampa has separate districts that are hardly contiguous. Result is duplication. Instead of economizing on operations, we have rival bureaucracies. End product is one overcorrected child. No wonder Tampa is the laughingstock of the nation. Why argue image? Our reality's bad.
Fix it and that will be our image. A makeover we could pull off. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, it could be the fight of our lives, but we need consolidation. We need it argued over and voted on. Give referendum a chance. Otherwise, we face ambivalence forever.
What a mercy. We’re one tally away from what everybody’s crying for. What we are is a case of arrested development. We just don’t want to go through the maturation process. Should we call for reinvention and succeed at it, the world will take notice. Should we continue to do as we’re told, our self-contempt is the message. Loud and clear.
Which will it be? More of the same? Or we do what has to be done?

Unmistakably, county organization lags way behind population growth -- even as its reactionary contingent resists necessary change for our population to take its rightful place at the table. It’s just weeks ago the Economist featured Tampa as the decisive pivot for Election 2012. Note the county voted Democrat in both 2008 and 2012, even with the ongoing vote-suppression measures that worked so well for the GOP in critical states in the Bush years.
Any issue we might have with the powers-that-be (essentially oligarchs) stem from our I4 environment branded by Rand-McNally as the “most corporate” in America. We are held back by government officials who embarrass us with corruption, waste, and antihuman measures. No solution is forthcoming until the voters organize and take our government back from the powers that be and their minions feeding at the public trough.
Our every issue breaks down to the fact the system is rigged. That the 2000 debacle should occur and threaten to recur in Florida should surprise none of us.
Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not ignorance that’s oppressing us, though bigotry and contrarianism does prevail. Except for Ph.D’s, Hillsborough County still has more degrees than the rest of the country per capita.

It’s our culture. We’re scattered. We’re not integrated. We tend more to cocoon and not mix. Our escapism stems from the fact most of us came relatively recently from other parts of the country and the world. We don’t look to history and tradition. The flipside of laidback and easygoing is loosey-goosey and blasé. As a culture we seem lazy. Expediency rules. We follow the path of least resistance. For example, 1958 is the year the subject of consolidation first formalized in this county. It was endorsed by everybody -- the Mayor, the Council, Chamber of Commerce, etc -- but it took almost a decade for it come before a popular vote. The vote went against it but not by such a margin that another vote wasn’t called for, especially considering the massive reorganization any such change calls for.
Well, this took another three years. Again, a close vote.
The next time, referendum came sooner. Two years.
Each time scare tactics are invoked by the usual suspects, demagogues protecting their power base (favors, financial support, revolving-door hiring) and consolidation is denied.
Maybe it's time the LGBT commuity stands up and leads the charge toward modernization of government. Go Stonewall. Weigh in and show what numbers mean in a democracy.

H I L L S B O R O U G H C O U N T Y : THE TAIL THAT WAGS THE DOG
Just a couple of lifetimes ago, a few hundred native Americans inhabited what is now the thousand square miles of Hillsborough County. Today, our county has packed within its borders enough people to fill Iceland four times and its capitol five. In our county, we’ve the equivalent of the entire area of the country of Luxembourg with twice its population -- yet we’re but 15% incorporated.
Why is that? Why isn't that massive population center unified and mobilized?
Used to breakneck growth for 130 years, we still outpace the rest of the country, even in the midst of economic downturn. However, as populated as we are (density of the Netherlands) we are restrained by a county government that’s at odds with its own population. Case in point is the vote on civil partnership which two out of three residents want but was voted down Thursday by our elected reps regardless.
Should the city be rolled back to county line (as is the case of Philadelphia -- a similar number of citizens) we’d be the 7th largest city in the US by population and the 5th largest in size. However our density would still be less than that of Jacksonville, a city that consolidated half a century ago.
Payoff for consolidation is to gain serious attention through becoming our true size instead of the #53 US ranking we’re currently reduced to. All other benefits pale in comparison.

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY ANNUAL GROWTH

census-----citizens--decade's growth--annual growth
1840------------452
1850----------2,377------------425.9%---------42.59%
1860----------2,981-------------25.4%-----------2.54%
1870----------3,216---------------7.9%------------.79%
1880----------5,814--------------80.8%----------8.08%
1890---------14,941------------157.0%---------15.70%
1900---------36,013------------141.0%---------14.10%
1910---------78,374------------117.6%---------11.76%
1920---------88,257--------------12.6%----------1.26%
1930-------153,519---------------73.9%----------7.39%
1940-------180,148---------------17.3%----------1.73%
1950-------249,894---------------38.7%----------3.87%
1960-------397,788---------------59.2%----------5.92%
1970-------490,265---------------23.2%----------2.32%
1980-------646,960---------------32.0%----------3.20%
1990-------834,054---------------28.9%----------2.89%
2000-------998,948---------------19.8%----------1.98%
2010-----1,229,226---------------23.1%----------2.31%
Est 2011 1,267,775--------------------------------3.10%