Hawaiian Surprise Wedding

A sweet surprise for two servicemen, Christian Alarid and Shayne Barnes, courtesy of the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau:

Hawaii Says Aloha to Marriage Equality

Marriage equality is coming soon to Hawaii, as the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports:

The state Senate, as expected, overwhelmingly approved a marriage equity bill today, sending the measure to Gov. Neil Abercrombie who has vowed to sign it and make Hawaii the 15th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

An invitation-only bill-signing ceremony is set for 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Hawaii Convention Center's Liliu Theater. The event will be streamed live at http://governor.hawaii.com.

Today's 19-4 vote, while historic, was a somewhat anti-climatic end to the legislative special session that began Oct. 28 and included more than 55 hours of public testimony, followed by two day-long sessions in the House where lawmakers approved the bill late Friday night in a 30-19 vote.

"I look forward to signing this significant piece of legislation, which provides marriage equity and fully recognizes and protects religious freedoms," Abercrombie said in a statement after the Senate vote.

The law will take effect on December 2.

Update, 11/13:  Gov. Abercrombie signed the bill into law at a ceremony in Honolulu this morning, making Hawaii the 15th state to embrace marriage equality, closing a circle that began with three Hawaiian same-sex couples in 1990.

Marriage News Watch, 11/11/13

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




Meanwhile, the Hawaiian House passed its marriage equality bill on Friday, which goes now to the Senate on Tuesday; the Senate already passed an earlier version by a wide margin, and Governor Neil Abercrombie is eager to sign the bill into law.

Despite the fuzzy video, a must-watch today is this wonderful speech by 24-year-old state representative Kaniela Ing (D-South Maui), who though straight is a solid ally and, among other things, said:

Some testifiers have spoken about this bill ushering in an onslaught of 'gay lifestyle'. And they challenged your committee members: 'Mr. Speaker - would you wish homosexulaity upon your own kids?'

So I really thought about this. If the gay lifestyle they speak of pertains to the highly successful physicians, attorneys, economists, a world-renowned microbiologist and psychologist that we've seen testify - if this gay lifestyle pertains to the inspiringly commited couples who have been together for decades but are still viewed as strangers in the eyes of their government, if this gay lifestyle that they're referring to pertains to these brave people boldly standing in the face of hate to fight for equal rights for all - if that's what the gay agenda will bring - if that's how my gay children will be..then hey, sign me up. I'll take three.

Illinois Passes Marriage Equality Bill

A marriage equality bill was passed today by 61-54 in the Illinois, followed shortly thereafter by a 32-21 vote in the Senate. The bill is now on its way to the desk of Governor Pat Quinn, who has promised to sign it. Same-sex weddings will begin in the Land of Lincoln on June 1 of next year, making Illinois the 15th state of the Union to embrace marriage equality.

President Obama, who served for nearly eight years in the Illinois Senate, issued a statement:

Tonight, I applaud the men and women of the Illinois General Assembly, a body in which I was proud to serve, for voting to legalize marriage equality in my home state.

As President, I have always believed that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally under the law. Over time, I also came to believe that same-sex couples should be able to get married like anyone else. So tonight, Michelle and I are overjoyed for all the committed couples in Illinois whose love will now be as legal as ours – and for their friends and family who have long wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and equally under the law.

I also commend the members of the General Assembly for approaching this issue in a fair and open way, and for recognizing the importance of our commitment to religious freedom by engaging the religious community in this conversation. Throughout this debate, they’ve made it clear that this is about civil marriages and civil laws, and made sure that churches and other institutions of faith are still free to make their own decisions that conform to their own teachings.

As I said in my Inaugural Address last January, our journey as a nation is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law, for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well. And tonight, I’m so proud that the men and women elected to serve the people of the great state of Illinois have chosen to take us one step further on that journey to perfect our union.

Meanwhile in Hawaii, debate on a same-sex marriage bill continues in the House of Representatives, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 44-7. The Hawaiian Senate passed the bill by 20-4 on October 30. The House proceedings have been held up this week by the Speaker's decision to allow more than 5,000 members of the public to speak for two minutes each in what has been called a "citizens' filibuster," consisting of mostly Bible-thumping conservatives. 

However, some marriage-equality supporters have also testified, and the scientific testimony on the genetic basis of sexual orientation provided by geneticist Dean Hamer is well worth listening to:




Update, 11/8: Governor Quinn has announced he will sign the Illinois same-sex marriage bill on November 20 in Chicago.

Marriage News Watch, 9/6/13

Matt Baume of the American Foundation for Equal Rights reports:




Update: Hawaii Governor Neil Abercombie has called a special session of the Legislature to convene on October 28 to pass a same-sex marriage bill; the governor believes there are enough votes in both the Senate and the House to pass the measure, which would come into effect in mid-November.

Same-sex marriage in the United States was first given serious legal consideration by the Hawaii Supreme Court in 1993, causing conservatives to react with horror in many other states around the country and in Congress, eventually leading to the passage of the federal Defense of Marriage Act three years later, followed by numerous state bans.

New Year Brings Progress towards Marriage Equality

A 2010 map of relationship recognition laws in the fifty states:
For an updated map, visit HRC's map page.

This year of grace 2012 began with a handful of couples in two states, Delaware and Hawaii, entering civil unions just after the stroke of midnight last night.  So progress comes in with the New Year, little by little and step by step.  It seems agonizingly slow to us old codgers - who were all of us at one time unconvicted felons, you might say, in the decades before the sodomy laws were struck down in 2003 - but I suppose every little advance is worth the wait. 

A hundred years from now, if the world holds together that long, no doubt future generations of gays and lesbians will take marriage equality as a given, and wonder what all the fuss was about.  Well, that's what we are looking forward to, even if us old geezers don't live to see it.  All good wishes to the happy couples joined today and hereafter.

In Today's News

Joe.My.God. caught a couple of interesting newsbits today:

The Oklahoma House of Representatives - Sally Kern's home away from home, you know - has passed a joint resolution by 83 votes to 13:

"That the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States. "The language of HJR 1003 further serves notice to the federal government "to cease and desist, effectively immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers." . . .

Eight other states have sovereignty bills pending, another twelve have bills on the way. Some legal sources call the bills merely symbolic, saying that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution renders such efforts moot. Others are calling the sovereignty movement the thin wedge of a coming secessionist effort largely driven by disagreements over social policy issues such as gay rights, immigration, and freedom of religion.

Oh dear, are we back to the whole States' Rights thing now? That is exactly the line the segregationists took, starting in the 1940's, to oppose the civil rights movement: Dixiecrats, interposition, nullification, standing in the schoolhouse door, and all such as that. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

Joe also reprints part of lesbian blogger Keori's report from the legislative hearings in Hawaii on a proposed civil unions bill:

You know, it gets really tiresome to be called diseased and a pedophile and a rapist and an abomination and a threat to America three dozen times in one day. It infuriates me to hear that yes, heterosexuals have special rights (at least they admitted it finally!) and that is how it should be because The Big Book of Bronze Age Fairy Tales says so. To hear little old ladies screaming that they would rather see their grandchildren commit suicide than "be part of that disgusting, filthy, evil lifestyle", isn't even remotely amusing anymore.

Even better is to, due to the concussion headache beginning to blind me, forget to take off my little green and gold "equality" sticker on the way out of the building, and be followed to the bus stop by a bunch of red shirts with signs. Three 6'5", 200 pound Islander guys with signs saying "Gay marriage is wrong" and "John 3:16" followed the lone little white girl with her laptop case across the street, yelling at me, "Repent!", calling me a bitch and a whore, telling me, "You just need a real man to fuck you straight." Nothing I haven't heard before.

Then one of them said, "We know who you are now, and what you drive. We saw you last Thursday. You better watch yourself, fucking haole bitch." Not one of the 20 people standing around the bus stop said anything to them. I got on the first bus that came along, got off three stops down the street, and caught my right bus a few minutes later. I rode home all alone, with my headphones on, praying no one bothered me. I don't want to ever hear another fake apology from these people saying that they don't actually hate queers, they're just "protecting traditional marriage". It's just the latest lie in their christian hate grab bag.

Now fellas, you remember last fall, all those big strapping gay guys who swarmed the little old lady carrying a styrofoam cross at a Prop 8 rally? If we act nasty like that, we have no moral standing to complain when the other side treats our people that way, do we? It's wrong and it's ugly, no matter who does it; and what goes around, comes around.

And David Mixner summarizes several more examples of Republican asshattery in the last week, including these gems:

-Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) used a major forum in his home state of Alabama to question if President Obama is even a citizen of America!

-Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) used another speaking opportunity in Kentucky to proclaim loudly that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be dead in six months! In an attempt to quell the bad publicity generated, he issued a formal apology to the feisty Madame Justice, who returned to the bench this week.

-Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) wrote in a letter that Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi were not real Catholics! Didn't know the senator was a papal representative. So much for his message on Stimulus!

-The newly elected Chair of the Republican Party, Michael Steele, was asked about the possibility of the Republican Party supporting civil unions down the road he responded, "No, no, no. What would we do that for? What are you, crazy?" So much for inclusiveness!

Plus this bizarre video of failed Republican candidate Alan Keyes:

What I say: Tell you what, guys. Let's be fair about this and give the wingnuts their very own state: Alaska. Hell, let's cut Alaska loose, and let them have it for their own Holy Nation. Then they can all sit up there and beat their Bibles and stare at Putin to their heart's content. Give 'em all a one-way ticket, plus moving expenses, hell we already got a deficit going, it won't cost that much more and everybody would be happy then. Right?

Palin-Jindal 2012. Yes, please God. Pass it around.