With a unanimous vote on Thursday, June 7, St. Petersburg became the second city in Pinellas County to create a domestic partnership registry for unmarried couples.
The crowd awaited anxiously throughout the morning and for a moment it looked like the ordinance would be placed on the back burner while proposed changes were presented to the council. After a short recess, however, the council came back and voted to approve the changes.
Those changes included allowing non-residents of the city to take part in the registry”which is similar to the language adopted by the City of Tampa in March.
The St. Petersburg domestic partnership registry should take affect sometime this summer, although a specific date for registration wasn't immediately available. The registry allows for same-sex and opposite-sex unmarried couples to register with the city and provides access to hospital visitation, medical decisions and funeral planning.
