SAVE Dade’s efforts to lobby three Miami-Dade cities to adopt ordinances providing domestic partner benefits to their employees, and strengthening Miami Beach’s current domestic partner ordinance, have been met with support by many city leaders.

While domestic partnerships are the only form of relationships currently recognized by the state of Florida for those in the LGBT community, many of the state’s municipalities don’t offer them.

Fueled by SAVE Dade’s efforts last year, the Board of Miami-Dade County Commissioners adopted a Domestic Partnership Ordinance in May 2008. The ordinance entitles residents the right to register as domestic partners and visit their loved ones in hospitals and/or prison facilities. In addition to the victory, the ordinance provided “health insurance eligibility and other benefits to the domestic partners of Miami-Dade County employees.”

Now SAVE Dade is lobbying the City of Miami, South Miami and Village of Palmetto Bay to get on board and pass their own domestic partnership ordinance for city employees. Support has already come in from Commissioner Marc Sarnoff of Miami and Commissioner Valerie Newman of South Miami.

In Miami Beach, which already has one of the strongest domestic partnership ordinances in the nation, SAVE Dade is helping to further strengthen the city’s ordinance by adding additional benefits under their law.

Miami Beach Commissioner Jerry Libbin and CommissionerVictor Diaz proposed the added benefits on February 3 to the Mayor’s Gay Business Development Committee, of which SAVE Dade has representation.

Libbin suggested the addition of a “Non-Spousal Rollover” that allows domestic partners to rollover retirement benefits to their surviving partner, and a “Hardship Distribution” benefit, which secures the right of a non-spouse couple listed under a joint 401(k) plan to withdraw money from their retirement fund “in case of a partner’s medical or financial emergency.” Adding on to Libbin’s suggestions, Diaz suggested that there be “more aggressive efforts” in the publicizing of the Human Relations, Domestic Partnership and Equal Benefits Legislation that are already in place. Mayor Bower agreed to co-sponsor the referral.

Keep up to date with the status of our Domestic Partnership work in our monthly newsletters and one a month news updates.