An amendment to overturn Florida's gay marriage ban could make it on next year's ballot.
The group Equal Marriage Florida will need nearly 700,000 signatures on the petition to put an amendment on the 2014 ballot overturning Florida's ban on gay marriage.
If that were to happen, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, same-sex couples could get access to the federal benefits they say they deserve.
"Back when Amendment 2 was passed, there wasn't very many places that gay marriage was OK," said Jim Van Riper of Equality Florida. "It's taken off, and I think you're going to hear a lot of noise, a lot of rhetoric, about it from social conservatives, but the reality is that the pendulum is swinging."
To hear it from gay rights activists, the arch of history is tilting in their favor. However, it was only five years ago that Florida voters chose to ban gay marriage, a development that owed a lot to the power of the church.
Social conservatives are preparing to turn out their base again, this time to vote "no" on overturning the ban.
That's assuming the amendment even makes it to the ballot.
Damien Filer with Progress Florida is in full support of legalizing gay marriage, but he said he doubts it will happen in 2014.
"I don't think it's realistic to decide, basically about six to eight months before you'd have to qualify for the ballot, to start this whole process," he said. "It's really a multi-year process to do this."
Even if the group does get a new amendment on the ballot, it would take 60 percent of the vote to overturn the current state constitutional ban.
Gay rights activists are also thinking about challenging Florida's gay marriage ban in court. Equality Florida is now looking for same-sex couples who might want to serve as plaintiffs.
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