MIAMI — A judge legalized gay marriage in Florida’s most gay-friendly county Thursday, siding with same-sex couples in the Florida Keys who said the state’s ban is discriminatory and makes them second-class citizens.
The ruling applies only to Monroe County and was immediately appealed. The lawsuit contends that the same-sex marriage ban approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2008 violates the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution, which guarantees equal protection under the law.
Circuit Judge Luis M. Garcia, appointed by Governor Jeb Bush in 2000 and reelected twice since then, said same-sex couples could get marriage licenses as early as Tuesday.
But Attorney General Pam Bondi said Florida has sole authority to define marriage within the state and that the voters’ will must be respected. The referendum amended Florida’s constitution to define marriage as a union solely between one man and one woman.
Bondi’s immediate notice of appeal creates an automatic stay that likely puts any same-sex marriage licenses on hold well past Tuesday, according to her office.
In his ruling, the judge invoked other moments in American history when the courts had to step in to guarantee the civil rights of minorities.
‘‘The court is aware that the majority of voters oppose same-sex marriage, but it is our country’s proud history to protect the rights of the individual, the rights of the unpopular, and the rights of the powerless, even at the cost of offending the majority,’’ Garcia wrote. ‘‘Whether it is . . . when Nazi supremacists won the right to march in Skokie, Illinois, a predominantly Jewish neighborhood; or when a black woman wanted to marry a white man in Virginia; or when black children wanted to go to an all-white school, the Constitution guarantees and protects ALL of its citizens from government interference.’’
‘‘It hit us a little bit by surprise,’’ said attorney Bernadette Restivo, who filed the suit on behalf of Aaron Huntsman and William Lee Jones. “We couldn’t be happier.’’
Florida has been a battleground on gay rights. In the 1970s, singer and orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant led a campaign to overturn a Dade County ordinance that banned discrimination against gays. The county commission reinstated the ban 20 years later.
In 1977, Florida also became the only state that barred gay people from adopting children. A state court judge threw out the law in 2008, finding ‘‘no rational basis’’ for the ban and approving the adoption of two young brothers by gay rights activist Martin Gill and his male partner. The state decided two years later not to appeal that ruling, making adoption by gay people legal.
But the Keys are culturally far removed from Anita Bryant’s Florida.
Gay marriage opponents condemned it: ‘‘This disrespects just under 5 million voters and effectively disenfranchises them. It shows no regard for the rule of law or the constitution,’’ said John Stemberger, president of the Florida Family Policy Council, which led the referendum campaign.
The voters should decide this issue, he said. The ban passed with nearly 62 percent support in 2008, and a repeal would require at least 60 percent support.