Lesbian and gay couples and others may now register as "reciprocal beneficiaries" following Hawaiian House and Senate agreements in late April to attempt a bypass of Hawaii's court-ordered sanction of same-sex marriage, a sanction which was placed by Judge Kevin Chang on a back-burner for a year until specific entanglements could be ironed out. Other benefits registrants include certain categories of unmarried opposite-sex couples.

The state legislature, working to define marriage as an opposite-sex arrangement only, knew it must provide answers to legal critics hoping to enforce Hawaii Circuit Court's December 3, 1996 pro-same-sex-marriage ruling. The lawmakers, enacting the reciprocal beneficiaries arrangement, also launched an initiative for voters to support that makes only opposite sexes eligible for marriage. Voters will be asked to stand behind that initiative when they go to the polls in November, 1998. Some predict that the Court will have, by that time, allowed same-sex marriages to proceed unhindered.

A wave of anti-same-sex marital legislation, fired by fundamentalist religious zealots, rolled through state legislatures from coast to coast following the Hawaiian court's 1996 decision. The Defense of Marriage ACT (DOMA) was approved by Congress last year and signed into law by a compliant President Clinton.

Hawaii's representatives agreed in their House Bill 118 to institute what some activists are now calling "a back of the bus" arrangement, namely domestic partnership arrangements instead of state-recognized marriages. Nevertheless, the enactment offers same-sex couples the most far-ranging package of benefits currently known to gay and lesbian couples in any one of the United States.

Dual beneficiaries must have reached their 18th year. In contrast to heterosexuals who pay $32 dollars for marital licenses, reciprocal beneficiaries must pay $8 to register.

Reciprocal beneficiary status is available only to persons who are unable to marry under Hawaii's laws, including blood relatives. The status is available to unmarried first cousins or to unmarried daughters and widowed mothers.

Persons already married are not eligible. Although there is no Hawaiian residency requirement, the benefits are not available outside of the islands.

They include benefits related to the use of state properties and facilities, jointly held property rights, inheritance and survivorship benefits, family and funeral leave, motor vehicle insurance coverage, public and private pre-paid health insurance coverage, and legal standing for wrongful death, and crime victims rights.

Joint custody of children is not among the benefits granted, nor is mutual support and divorce. Joint income-tax returns are not allowed and thus high single person tax rates will remain the unhappy lot of gay men and lesbians who have taken the reciprocal beneficiaries route.

Either party to reciprocal beneficiary status may terminate the arrangement.

"What can I say?" asked a disappointed Martin Rice, a Hawaiian marriage activist who has lived with his partner, Fred, for 24 years.