Adventures at the Polling Place

My polling place is the little community center in the park directly across the street from my front door. I love it. (It does tend to cause traffic problems, but my street is small enough, my community is small enough, and these things happen so infrequently that it's not really an issue.)

So yesterday was the Florida primary. My vote for a presidential candidate probably won't count but there was some important local stuff on the ballot. As usual, there were people with placards and fliers hanging out just beyond the no-politicking-beyond-this-point signs. (Those signs are recent and directly related to a local skirmish that I'll post about if I can Google up the names of the guilty.) No one approached us as Miss L* and I walked up to the building.

On the way out, however, was a different story. As we were making our way back home, a guy with small yellow cards practically ran over to get my attention. He handed me one and urged me to read the first paragraph, which read:

"The so-called Florida 'Marriage Protection Amendment' could take away benefits from all unmarried couples in Florida. This amendment won't just ban same-sex partnership recognition - all unmarried couples in Florida could lose the benefits they already have:"

(Then it went on to list the rights in question, such as hospital visitation and existing corporate domestic partner benefits.)

Now, in this matter I am the proverbial choir being preached at. (Hell, I'm all for skipping the civil union nonsense and calling it marriage.) But I was amused to be so specifically targeted by the person delivering this message, as it wouldn't technically impact me at all.

Then I realized that I was walking with a toddler and not wearing a wedding ring. So I suppose it wasn't a huge leap after all.

Oh, the two groups sponsoring the flier were Human Rights Campaign and Florida Red & Blue.

*my two-year-old