Hawaii Civil Unions - status update, scenes from the front, and supporting our Labor allies

by: Keori

Thu Mar 19, 2009 at 04:05:10 AM EDT

Aloha, Blenders! Greetings and Salutations to all!

To bring everyone up to speed if you're just joining us, HB444 HD1 is a bill which would establish Civil Unions in the state of Hawaii with all the legal rights, responsibilities, and protections of civil marriage. (It even includes one of those reassuring ego-stroking re-statements of the First Amendment that says churches can still hate us as much as they please! Isn't that special?) The bill passed through the House of Representatives on a 35-17 vote (one abstention), but is sitting in the Senate. After the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on February 24th, the Committee recommended it pass, unamended, but tied on a 3-3 vote to send the bill back to the full Senate for its final readings and floor vote.

So where are we now? Details below the fold...

Right now the bill is waiting for Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, with the support of her colleagues, to pull it from the JGO Committee and bring it to the Senate floor for a full vote. We are working hard on the legislators. We have the support of the majority of Senators. But our opposition, made up of the Hawaii Family Forum and the christian hate groups, are, as always, very well bankrolled. They have been airing spots on Clear Channel radio stations,  and placed anti-gay ads in local newspapers. They flew out a mainland christian hate group, Bema Ministries (also known as Cry To God Ministries), to harass UH students on campus. The Family Equality Coalition is operating on a grass-roots budget and needs help and support to fund our own ads and production of educational materials. If you can be part of this effort, please go to http://www.familyequalitycoalition.org and sign up for action alerts, get news releases, and donate if you can. Even $1 will make a difference. (The website is being updated and moved, so if you are re-directed, be patient. If the link doesn't work, please copy-paste the URL.)

This has been an effort like we have seen nowhere else. Hawaii is a VERY unique place. We are one of, if not THE, most culturally, ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse states in the nation. This push has brought together people of all races, places of origin, religious faiths, personal philosophies, economic strata, trades, educational levels, affiliations, neighborhoods, and political movements. 

None of this would have been possible without the unwavering support of UniteHere Local 5 and the entire labor union movement. Yesterday local business and community leaders held a press conference in support of HB444. Representatives of the NAACP, Filipinos for Affirmative Action, the Institute For Advancement of Hawaii Affairs, the Japanese American Citizens League, 'Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition, PA'I Foundation, UniteHere Local 5, and many others issued the following statement:

Dear Senators:

In 1998, Hawai‘i voted to grant our state legislators “the power to reserve marriage to opposite sex couples.” However, this did not obviate the Legislature’s obligation under the constitution to provide equal protection to all of Hawai‘i’s citizens.

Now, more than a decade later, you have before you an historic opportunity to extend equality to same-sex couples and their families. HB 444 HD1 has already passed the House with overwhelming support. It is now up to you. As leaders of diverse communities across the islands, we call on you to bring the Civil Unions bill to the floor for passage. We believe:

• This is a civil rights issue. Married couples in Hawai‘i, and their children, have access to an extensive package of rights, benefits, and responsibilities. Same-sex couples have very limited access to these same rights and benefits, though they fully participate in our communities, pay taxes, support their children, care for their elders and carry out all the same obligations as other families in our communities. Civil unions would provide equality under State law, as guaranteed by the Hawai‘i State Constitution.

• This is an issue of economic justice. In these times of extreme economic vulnerability for all of Hawai‘i’s families, civil unions would provide greater economic stability for families currently excluded from the State’s marriage laws. As an example, same-sex couples are unable to benefit from joint tax filings and must spend hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars on legal documents, only to obtain a small fraction of the protections afforded to married couples. Civil unions would provide equal and fair treatment for all of Hawai‘i’s families.

• This is about ‘ohana. Across our islands, our most important deeply held values are about ‘ohana and malama, supporting and caring for our families and communities. We have always accepted and embraced all members of our families, from keiki to kupuna, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender expression. We must stop the discrimination and instead offer respect, love, and equality under the law.

We call on you to uphold Hawai‘i’s constitution, to support equality and economic justice, and to strengthen all of Hawai‘i’s ‘ohana by enacting civil union legislation now.

Sincerely,

Aloha,

Dr. Amy Agbayani, Co-Chair, Friends of Civil Rights and Filipinos for Affirmative Action

Shawn Benton, President, Japanese American Citizens League – Honolulu Chapter

Alphonso Braggs, President, Honolulu – Hawai‘i NAACP

Puanani Burgess, Principle, One Peace-At-A-Time

Eric Gill, Financial Secretary-Treasurer, UNITE HERE Local 5

Debi Hartmann, Former Chair, Hawai‘i State Board of Education

Lynette Hi‘ilani Cruz, Professor of Anthropology; President, Ka Lei Maile Ali‘i Hawaiian Civic Club

Faye Kennedy, Co-Chair, Hawai‘i Friends of Civil Rights

Poka Laenui, Director, Institute for the Advancement of Hawaiian Affairs

Brien Matson, President, Musicians’ Association of Hawai‘i, Local 677

James Nakapa‘ahu, Representative, Hui o Na Ike, alternative media for alternative voices

Wayne Kaho‘onei Panoke, Executive Director, ‘Ilio‘ulaokalani Coalition

Vicky Holt Takamine, Executive Director, PA‘I Foundation

Allicyn Tasaka & Debbie Shimizu, Co-Chairs, Hawai‘i State Democratic Women’s Caucus

Footage of the press conference:

I would like to give a special, heartfelt thank you to the hotel, restaurant, and laundry workers and their union leaders at UniteHere Local 5, and ALL the labor unions who have supported and lobbied and assisted us in this fight. We could not have gotten anywhere near this far without their help and support. On a personal note, my brother-in-law was laid off late last year. My sister nearly lost her job also, but was able to join her local union before the axe came down. They helped her keep her job, health care for her family, and their house. I have seen firsthand the good work that labor unions in this country do. Want to know why Republicans hate and fear labor unions? Because they protect people who otherwise would have no voice, and because organized labor is one of the truly powerful forces for change. I ask each one of our American readers, LGBT and ally, to please support your local labor unions. Help them to help others. You can do so by going to the UniteHere website and becoming involved, by going to your local union house and volunteering to stuff envelopes or organize fliers for a few hours, by standing with them in picket lines and protesting against those who cross them, and by contacting your Representative and Senators and urging them to support the Employee Free Choice Act, which was introduced in both chambers of Congress on March 10th.

You can support the hotel, restaurant, laundry, gaming, and food service industry workers by supporting businesses who support their workers. Go to Sleep With the Right People, an alliance between LGBT communities and UniteHere, and become informed. Learn which hotels treat their workers fairly, and support them with your business. Learn which hotels don't. Let their corporate headquarters know why you won't be staying in their establishment on your next vacation.

We are all in this together.  Let's fight with one voice, one love, one Aloha.