TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi is seeking to defend the state's existing ban on gay marriage in two ongoing lawsuits.
Bondi's office on Tuesday filed motions to intervene in lawsuits that had been filed by gay couples in Miami-Dade and Monroe circuit courts. In both instances, the lawsuits were not filed against the state.
Allen Winsor, the state's solicitor general, states in the motions that Florida has a legitimate interest in intervening in the case since it is a challenge to the 2008 constitutional amendment that banned gay marriage.
Bondi is already defending the state in a lawsuit filed in a north Florida federal court. That legal challenge maintains the state is discriminating against gay couples by not recognizing same-sex marriages performed in states where they are legal.
