Gay marriage ban may be on Florida ballot

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A Florida group said it needs 13,000 more signatures to put a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage on the 2008 ballot.

Florida4Marriage announced it had gathered 597,000 signatures and recent polls indicate the amendment could possibly gather the 60 percent of votes it would need to pass, the Sarasota (Fla.) Herald-Tribune reported Monday.

"People intuitively understand why marriage should be between a man and a woman," John Stemberger, head of Florida4Marriage, told the Herald-Tribune. "This campaign is not a shot in the dark."

Opponents of the measure warn it could cause many unmarried couples -- gay and straight -- to lose partnership benefits offered by local governments.

"Voters need to be aware that this issue isn't limited to having to do with gay and lesbian people," Derek Newton, leader of Florida Red and Blue, a nonpartisan group formed in May to fight the ban, said to the newspaper. "Anyone who's not married or at some point in the future may not be married, this is going to impact them."