Same-sex marriage ban in Florida to end Jan. 5

[finehoe]

Same-sex couples in Florida could begin shortly after the new year, after a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that a stay of a ruling that the state's gay-marriage ban is unconstitutional will be lifted at the end of the day Jan. 5.

In a two-page ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta turned down a request by Florida's secretaries of health and management services and the clerk of the court in the Panhandle's Washington County to extend the stay. A federal judge based in Tallahassee ruled in August that the state's gay-marriage ban is unconstitutional, but stayed his decision until Jan. 5 to give the state time to appeal.

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/gay-south-florida/article4261997.html