Hawaii gay marriage is now a reality!
Hawaii politicians have come of age with gay marriage. Today the Governor of Hawaii signed the gay marriage bill that was passed by the State Senate, amended by the State House, and confirmed again as amended by the Senate. Hawaii gay marriage will start on December 2nd, 2013.
Hawaii’s road to legal gay civil marriage started long ago. The Courts were making it clear that the State was in violation of their own State Constitution’s Equal Protection clause. However, a State Constitutional Amendment was passed which permitted the State Legislature the right to define marriage. The Legislature then passed a law defining marriage as only between a man and women.
Hawaii gay marriage was influenced by California’s Supreme Court case
Many years passed and a few States passed gay marriage laws. Finally the California Legislature did the same and gay marriages started in California. A long voyage of court cases started bouncing back and forth between State and Federal courts and finally ended up at the US Supreme Court. The Federal District Judge who presided over the court trial was a very conservative judge appointed by the first Bush. He was also a gay man with a long time partner. In court you can’t make unsubstantiated claims. All witnesses are subject to cross examination. You also can’t claim that a particular interpretation of God’s law is supreme to civil law. There was no reason which stood up in court to ignore the equal protection clause of the Californian State Constitution.