Civil Unions Debate Consumes Hawaii

by Michael Jones · 2009-02-23 07:02:00 UTC
Topics:

Hawaii Civil unions

This past weekend, evangelical organizers mobilized their religious networks and pumped out more than 1,500 people to screech against civil unions for same-sex partners in Hawaii.  The reason?  The Hawaii State Senate may pull civil unions legislation out of a dead-locked Senate committee, and allow the entire State Senate body to vote on it.  Isn't that ironic?  The radical right is constantly blasting "activist" judges for not allowing legislatures or people to vote on the issue of civil unions or same-sex marriage.  Now Hawaii might allow the full State Senate to vote on the issue, and the right-wingers explode.

The fate of the legislation rests in the hands of State Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and eight other State Senators, who must vote to move the civil unions legislation out of committee, and put it on the floor where it is likely to garner majority support.  Because of that possibility, anti-LGBT religious leaders are ratcheting up their rhetoric.

Hawaii Catholic Bishop Larry Silva wrote that the civil unions legislation would be a "travesty," while conservative religious leader Nathan Paikai told the Honolulu Advertister that homosexuals were "trying to put their uncleanliness on me, and on my children, and on my children's children. If they want to sin on themselves, if they want to do wrong, then do it on themselves."

Despite their chest-thumping, opponents of civil unions are in the minority here.  Most Hawaii residents believe that same-sex couples should be granted equal access to benefits, as do most U.S. residents.  Leaders from President Obama (a Democrat) to Utah Governor John Huntsman (a conservative Republican) favor civil unions, as well.

So it's time for Hawaii's Senate to get with the times, and send this legislation up to Governor Linda Lingle's desk.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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