Badpuppy Gay Today

Thursday, 17 April 1997

With the Hawaiian Senate insisting upon compromises which, opponents say, may cost the state as much as $13 million annually, House and Senate leaders now say they expect, nevertheless, to reach agreement on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

Norman Mizuguchi, Senate President, has told the Honolulu Star Bulletin that each side feels that it is close to an agreement, and that they are "the closest we've been in a long time." Mizuguchi reflected that "reasonable men can disagree, but given the time element that we have, reasonable men have to agree."

The time element referred to is Friday's legal deadline, which, at midnight, will give Governor Ben Cayetano, if both House and Senate reach accord, a required 10-day notice on the final language of the amendment.

Joe Souki, House Speaker, also believes that the legislators are close to settling their differences on an issue which has occasioned emotional turmoil among lawmakers and anguished outcrys from the public. "There will be a resolution," he promised.

The House, in contrast to the Senate, has insisted that marriage should be nothing more than a policy issue for the legislature. The Senate, however, is requesting assurances that "non-traditional" couples will keep Hawaii's constitutional protections so that the customary power distribution between the three branches of state government will be maintained. Hawaii's courts have cleared the way for legalized same-sex marriages, which decisions the legislators have attempted either to circumvent or to modify.

The constitutional protections for "non-traditional" couples include approximately 200 rights and benefits--including health insurance-- that would become mandatory in order to satisfy the courts' concerns about a lack of fair treatment for same-sex spouses. These benefits, House opponents argue, might cost the state as much as $13 million annually, though Senate sponsors of such legislation downplay the costs, believing they will be negligible. If the benefits are legalized, they would begin July 1. This date is not acceptable to the House, which would move them ahead to 1999.

If the constitutional amendment fails to materialize midnight Friday, it will fail to go forward and the Hawaiian courts' pro-same-sex marriage decisions will stand. The courts acted in response to three gay and lesbian couples who sued after being denied marriage licenses. Legislators indicate that they have been flooded with calls from constituents who favor or who show disfavor for the proposed amendment. The amendment's language, if accepted, would state: "The Legislature shall have the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples." Voters, in November, would then vote, in a special referendum, on the amendment's provisions.