Orlando Mayor: I Hope Our City Is The First In Florida To Host A Gay Wedding

"Diversity is our greatest strength and a vibrant, welcoming community attracts the kind of industries and talent our cities need. That’s why we were one of the first cities in Florida to adopt a domestic partner registry, and now we have more than 1,200 couples registered. I hope that one day we are the city that hosts the state’s first same-sex wedding. Love and commitment should be encouraged, and it should be celebrated and it should be embraced as a constitutional right for all." - Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, endorsing marriage equality for the first time at his State Of The City address yesterday.

Prior to his 2003 election as Orlando mayor, Dyer was the Democratic leader of the Florida Senate. Dyer had been touted as a leading candidate to unseat Florida Gov. Rick Scott this year, but he announced last year that he would not run.  Former governor and former Republican Charlie Crist currently leads Scott in the polls by a margin of seven points.

RELATED: Four marriage equality lawsuits are in progress in Florida. Last week a suit was filed against a panhandle county clerk. Earlier that week a Key West couple filed a marriage suit against the Monroe County Clerk. In January, Equality Florida and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a marriage equality suit on behalf of six local couples. Last month the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, who authored Florida's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, filed a motion to intervene in the case. Also last month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit which demands that Florida recognize legal out-of-state marriages.