JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- After years of trying, a group that wants to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman has submitted more than 600,000 signatures to Florida's election office -- enough to get the constitutional amendment on November ballot.

"We're saying yes to Amendment 2, and by doing so, we're also saying yes to marriage," Joey Vaughan said at a "Yes On 2" rally in Jacksonville on Thursday.

"It defines marriage as a union of a man and a woman as the best arrangement for protecting children and it does not prohibit the government from extending benefits to any persons," Vaughan said.

But the idea of limiting marriage to a man and a woman is not universally popular.

"I think it's a discrimination issue, and unfortunately I believe it's becoming a hate issue," said the Rev. Ruth Jensen.

Jensen said it's not about protecting children, but about hurting others.

"I'm a little tired of heterosexuals having special rights because they're married, they're automatically given so many things that people take for granted: visiting the husband or wife in the hospital, making decisions, inheriting property," Jensen said.

Opponents of gay marriage said they want to avoid what has happened in states such as Massachusetts, where a judge made homosexual marriage legal.

"We are not here to destroy the definition of marriage and to intentionally create a society in which we have two moms and two dad homes," said Vaughan.

At this time, 27 other states that have constitutional bans on gay marriage. Opponents of the amendment say same-sex marriage is already illegal under four different state statues.

"Many of the amendment's proponents of this say that they're religious people, but they're not acting like religious people," said Ruth. "Religious people believe in love and acceptance and tolerance, and they're not doing that."

Those trying to defeat the amendment say that that the language of the amendment would also hurt some elderly heterosexual couples who choose living-together arrangements rather than marriage to preserve pension and Social Security benefits.

MORE ONLINE:

• PRO: Florida4Marriage.com
• CON: SayNo2.com