Back on October 30th, the Hawaii Senate passed a marriage equality bill on a 20-4 margin. A House committee in Hawaii listened to five days worth of testimony in favor of and opposed to marriage equality. Several conservative faith communities came together to hold a "people's filibuster," but that eventually ended. Frankly, I avoided the whole mess. I didn't need to listen to their paranoia about how their religious rights would be supposedly trampled over by my marital rights.
For most of the week, the Hawaii House has held a series of three sessions to vote for or against marriage equality. Last night's session went on forever. I was among those watching it unfold online and live-tweeting my reactions. It was actually a lot of fun listening to the stalling tactics of those introducing 29 separate amendments to the marriage equality bill. Finally, under the influence of NyQuil, I succumbed to slumber. But I woke to good news. The Hawaii House finally passed the marriage equality bill on a 30-19 margin.
This bill now has to return to the Hawaii Senate to reconcile a few amendments, but it's expected to easily pass the Senate again. Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has vowed to sign this bill into law.
Hawaii is one of those civil union states. Existing civil unions will transform into marriages, but I think those couples need to do something to jump start that transformation.
If passed, this bill will go into effect on 12/02/13. Considering that Illinois' marriage equality law doesn't go into effect until 06/01/14, does that make Hawaii state #16 or #15? That was one of the questions that we debated online last night. I'm not quite sure we came to consensus.
Very exciting news!
Updated on 11/12/13: Good news! The Hawaii Senate reviewed the amended same-sex marriage bill that the Hawaii House passed this past Friday night. As anticipated, the Hawaii Senate passed the amended marriage bill on a 19-4 margin earlier today!
I read somewhere (but suggested here) that Gov. Abercrombie plans to sign the bill into law tomorrow morning!
Updated on 11/13/13: Extra good news! Governor Neil Abercrombie signed Hawaii's new same-sex marriage bill into law earlier today!!
Same-sex marriage will be officially recognized effective 12/02/13!