Bill would repeal Legislature authority on gay marriage
HONOLULU — A bill proposing the repeal of the state Legislature’s rule to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples cleared the Dwelling of Representatives on Wednesday and will head to the Senate for further consideration.
What You Demand To Know
If passed, House Bill 2802, Home Draft 1, would allow voters to decide whether to repeal Article I, Section 23 of the state Constitution, which states: “The Legislature shall contain the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples”
The doubt would be posed on the 2024 General Election ballot as: “Shall the state constitution be amended to repeal the legislature’s leadership to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples?”
The measure passed third reading on a 43-6 vote, with each of the chamber’s six Republican members voting in opposition and two other representatives excused
While the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act of 2013 explicitly legalized same-sex marriage in the state, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade, as successfully as other decisions favorable to conservative interests, have raised concerns on the left that the c
I was there the day the battle for same-sex marriages began in Hawaii. It was December 17, 1990.
A KITV cameraman and I followed three lesbian couples as they marched ceremoniously down Beretania Street to the State Health Department to file for marriage licenses. They had called the TV station to let us know about their plan. The cameraman was walking dangerously backwards to obtain a good angle on the couples’ faces. I was worried he might fall down.
The story perplexed me. I had nothing against homosexual couples, but I was thinking this is crazy. Why act they want to get married?
One of the lesbian applicants was Ninia Baehr, the daughter of Clara Jane “C.J.” Baehr, who was one of my favorite teachers at Punahou School. Ninia was named after a friend of mine. When we got to the Health Department, I asked Ninia, “Does C.J. know about this?” — thinking her mother would be mad.
Ninia said, “Yes, of course, C.J. knows. She introduced me to Genora.” Genora Dancel was a 30 year-old television engineer who worked with Ninia’s mother at Hawaii Public Television. Ninia was wearing a ruby and diamond engagement chime Genora had given her three months after they became a
A section of the state’s Bill of Rights still gives the Legislature the power to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in Hawaii since 2013 and legal in the U.S. since 2015. But that does not mean it is accepted by everyone, including many who linger in influential positions.
A unused coalition of local organizations that includes the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii has formed to push for repealing a section of the Hawaii Constitution they worry makes the right vulnerable to opposition. Section 23 reads, “The legislature shall acquire the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.”
The Change 23 Coalition wants to put the constitutional amendment before voters next year. The coalition says it will demonstrate that the state where the same-sex-marriage struggle began 30 years ago is still a leader in civil rights.
In 1993, a verdict by the Hawaii Supreme Court made Hawaii the first state to reflect on legal challenges to lgbtq+ marriage bans.
If voters do as the coalition wishes, they will inverse what voters did in 1998, when more than two out of three voters approved a constitutional amendment t
Baehr v. Miike
Pioneering case seeking the right to marry for queer couples in Hawaii
Summary
Lambda Legal entered this case seeking marriage equality as an amicus in 1993 before Hawaii’s highest court. The court was the first ever to rule that excluding lgbtq+ couples from marriage was discrimination. It sent the case help to trial court to settle whether the state could justify this discrimination. We joined as counsel and prepared for trial. In 1996 the trial determine rejected the state’s argument and agreed that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples was unjustifiable. The state appealed, while antigay forces from other states spent millions of dollars in Hawaii to support the first flourishing constitutional amendment specifically targeting same-sex attracted relationships, which voters passed in 1998. The next year the state’s high court ruled that the constitutional amendment prevented it from affirming the lower court’s order to give marriages licenses to same-sex couples. But the Hawaii legislature passed a landmark “Reciprocal Beneficiaries” law that created some of the protections gay couples could not access through marriage.