No efforts yet to get rid of domestic partner benefits

In the final mayoral debate in June 2011 days before the election, Carlos Gimenez vowed to protect domestic partner benefits.

Specifically Gimenez said he would veto an effort to strike down benefits currently offered by the county allowing its unmarried employees to buy health insurance for their partners, and for the couples to visit each other in jail and in the hospital.

"I will exercise my veto and veto it,” Gimenez said, according to a Miami Herald article about the debate. "I think it's the right thing to do.”

It was a rare moment of a clear policy difference between Gimenez and his mayoral rival Julio Robaina. The Christian Family Coalition had endorsed Robaina days before the debate and when pressed during the debate, Robaina said he would probably favor a repeal if commissioners initiated it.

Gimenez was one of the commissioners to grant the benefits for domestic partners. On May 20, 2008, the county commission including then-commissioner Gimenez voted 8-4 to adopt an ordinance entitling domestic partners to visitation rights at healthcare, correctional and juvenile facilities, among other benefits.

The county had 1,299 active registered domestic partnerships -- each one consists of two people -- as of June 7, 2012.

No proposal to strike down those benefits reached commissioners as of June 6 so we will leave this as a promise that is Not Yet Rated.