Sign-holders spread the word to passing vehicles on Beretania Street in front of the state Capitol Oct. 28. (HCH photo | Darlene Dela Cruz)
The special state legislative session, called by Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Oct. 28 to add Hawaii to the list of 14 Mainland states that have legalized same-sex marriage, awakened a giant of populist opposition.
Organized mostly by churches but moved by their own personal convictions, thousands of Hawaii citizens opposing same-sex marriage have showed up at rallies and Capitol hearings, delivered opinions in written testimony, called and emailed their lawmakers and joined in postcard campaigns.
An estimated 8,000 joined an Oct. 28 rally at the state Capitol. Thousands registered to speak at state House hearings resulting in four long days of testimonies. More than 11,000 filled out postcards at Catholic churches which were sent to state lawmakers.
Their main message: “Let the people decide!”
It’s a call for a referendum to change the state constitution that harkens back to a similar grassroots movement 15 years ago, in 1998, that resulted in 69 percent of the voters passing a constitutional amendment giving the state Legislature the power “to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.”
The 1998 referendum was a fight-back to a 1993 Hawaii Supreme Court decision that ruled that the state could not deny marriage to same-sex couples.
Hawaii legislators passed a law in 1997 recognizing marriage as being between one man and one woman, but needed the constitutional amendment to back it up.
THE RALLY
Hawaii Family Forum’s Eva Andrade addresses the crowd.
According to Eva Andrade, executive director of Hawaii Family Forum, whose legislative action arm, Hawaii Family Advocates, sponsored the Oct. 28 Capitol rally with the Hawaii Catholic Conference, said the number of people who came “shocked” some of the legislators. She estimated 8,000 over the course of the three-hour event.
“I don’t think they expected that many,” Andrade said.
Even she was surprised by the large turnout, though she realized it might be big when “we started to get inundated by community leaders” seeking information about the event.
Sign-wavers lined both sides of Beretania Street fronting the Capitol, from Punchbowl Street to Richards Street, shoulder-to shoulder most of the way.
The bulk of the people, most wearing dark blue as requested by organizers, were packed tightly around the speakers’ stage set up in the Capitol rotunda. Others relaxed under clear skies on the grassy areas around the Capitol.
The event mixed politics, religion and a little fun. The opening band included in its lineup of songs Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman.”
Francis Oda, pastor of New Life Church in Honolulu, exhorted the crowd to “lift our hands in prayer.”
“We are called together to use the keys of the Kingdom to bind the forces of Satan from coming against Hawaii,” he said.
The crowd was primarily church-connected, Andrade said — mostly Catholics, Mormons and members of New Hope and other evangelical congregations. The Catholics showed up, some by the busload, she said, even though the rally wasn’t heavily promoted by the diocese.
Bishop Larry Silva was one of the main speakers. Also present was Father Gary Secor, who had earlier given testimony at the state Senate hearings. Besides parish groups, Catholic lay organizations like the Knights of Columbus and Basic Christian Communities Hawaii were well represented.
The event’s rallying call, carried on placards everywhere and cheered on by nearly every speaker, was “Let the people decide!”
Andrade said it’s more than a catchy slogan. The enormous passions raised on both sides of the debate should persuade the Legislature to “do the right thing” and put the decision to the people in a referendum, she said.
Bishop Silva urged the crowd to “consider the big picture” beyond simply allowing two people in love to get married.
“It is much more sinister than that,” he said. The negative effects of same-sex marriage on traditional marriage will be “devastating.”
The bishop said that an editorial cartoon in favor of same-sex marriage caused him to envision “an invisible noose and Satan smiling widely to take away all our freedoms.”
“Our deeply held religious beliefs are revealed to us by God,” he said. “Male and female he created us in his own image and likeness.”
“God is the one who wrote the owner’s manual,” he said to applause.
“An issue of such great importance should be decided at the highest level of authority,” the bishop said, which is not the governor, Legislature or courts, but the people.
But even higher than the people is God, he said.
THE TESTIMONY
The thousands who signed up to speak at the state Senate and House hearings on the bill were overwhelmingly against the same-sex marriage bill. Marathon hearings before the House Judiciary Committee stretched from Thursday, Oct. 31, into the weekend, and continued on Monday.
Much of the testimony argued in favor of giving the decision to the people.
“This is too important to allow the legislative body to be the determining voice for this issue,” wrote one testifier who represented the thoughts of many. “I support the option of having Hawaii’s people vote … it’s the right thing to do.”
Other testimony objected to same-sex marriage on traditional, cultural and religious grounds.
“This bill will alter our island lifestyle and culture,” said one. “We are all products our kupuna and our parents. Our earliest concepts of male and female characteristics come from our ancestors. This bill will change our definition of family.”
Other arguments pointed to the bill’s lack of religious freedom protection for churches that could be forced to open their facilities to same-sex ceremonies and receptions.
“This bill fails to protect the rights of religious organizations” to make their own decisions as to how their facilities are used, one wrote.
Another warned of “lengthy and costly lawsuits that could lead some churches to eventually close down,” ending “important community programs that help feed the hungry and provide a wide range of support to Hawaii residents in need.”
Other arguments worried about the loss of personal liberties. “I also stand to lose the right to express my religious views on traditional marriage between one man and one woman, whether in the workplace or in public, just as others are able to express their differing views.”
One testimony came from public school teachers who feared they would be required to teach concepts that violate their beliefs. “With this new bill, if it passes, we feel that we may be forced to teach that marriage can be between people of the same gender. Is that what we want our children to learn?”
THE BISHOP’S VOICE
The primary voice of the Catholic Church in this debate belongs to Bishop Silva whose public letters and talks urged everyone to look at the “big picture.”
He warned of same-sex marriage’s “long-term and profound societal implications” that would infect everything from school textbooks and school dances to childrearing and adolescent sexual development.
The bishop also said that a redefinition of marriage would open the door to the legalization of polygamy and incest.
Religious freedom would also be “seriously threatened, no matter what safeguards may be built into the bill,” he said. And the rights of parents will be “seriously undermined.”
Bishop Silva said that the “greatest casualties” of same-sex marriage will be children who will be “deprived of being raised in a loving home by a mother and a father who loves them and whose love cooperated with God’s plan in creating them.”
“When children are deprived of such a home, there will be more poverty, more social ills, more juvenile suicides, and more problems than we can imagine,” the bishop said.
In each of his letters, Bishop Silva emphasized that one can respect the equality of human beings while acknowledging the difference between sexes and the distinctions between same-sex and opposite-sex relationships.
Efforts to preserve marriage “are an expression of our love,” he said.
THE CAMPAIGN
The campaign against same-sex marriage has also been waged on newspaper pages and in mailboxes, both physical and electronic.
A coalition of churches argued in full-page full-color newspaper ads that the issue should be left to a general referendum. “The legislature is going up against the will of the people,” the ad read. “This controversial issue deserves the full democratic process.”
Direct-mail postcards from churches such as New Hope Leeward and First Assembly of God called upon residents to contact their representatives and “let your voice be heard.”
Hawaii Family Forum sent out email messages promoting 21 days of prayer during October offering Scripture passages and questions for reflection “to seek God and intercede on behalf of the needs of our city, nation, families and homes.”
The final day of prayer, Oct. 27, entitled “Having Done All Else, Stand!” encouraged readers to “pray for the Heavens to be opened and God’s glory to be poured out upon the State Capitol as we move into this coming week.”
The Hawaii Family Forum website also assisted in channeling thousands of email messages from constituents to lawmakers, Andrade said.
According to Deacon Walter Yoshimitsu, director of the Hawaii Catholic Conference, the diocese’s public policy arm, a parish postcard campaign in October collected more than 11,000 cards expressing opposition to same-sex marriage addressed to individual members of the state House of Representatives.
The cards were picked up by the Knights of Columbus and hand-delivered to the Capitol, he said.
THE BACKGROUND
On Sept. 9, Gov. Abercrombie called for a special session of the state Legislature to pass a bill legalizing same-sex marriage. Leaders in both the state Senate and House claimed to have the votes to pass it, although the tally in the House was close with a small number undecided.
In a news release announcing his decision, the governor said the session, to start on Oct. 28, was necessary “to focus squarely on this important issue, without having to divert attention to the hundreds of other bills introduced during a regular session.”
The regular session starts in January.
“In addition,” he said, “if full advantage of various tax and other financial issues is to be achieved for citizens, passage before the end of the calendar year is essential.”
Opponents to the special session argued that its limited duration did not allow enough time for full discussion of the issue and that it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money.
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal Defense of Marriage Act arguing that the federal government must recognize same-sex marital status when legalized by states.
Subsequently, the IRS and U.S. Treasury Department have ruled that same-sex couples legally married in states will be treated as married for federal tax purposes.
In addition, the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced that married same-sex couples will be eligible for the same benefits as married opposite-sex couples.
Hawaii lawmakers passed a civil-union law last year, which gave same-sex couples the same state benefits and protections given to married couples. However, Hawaii’s civil-union couples cannot benefit from the overturning of DOMA because they are not married.
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
Much of the debate has been centered on religious freedom issues and whether churches, institutions and persons who object to same-sex marriage will be able to practice their beliefs free of government constraints and requirements.
Attorney Jim Hochberg, president of Hawaii Family Advocates, addressed some of these issues at length in an Oct. 17 memorandum to Hawaii state Sen. Les Ihara.
Hochberg said that while the bill protects the clergy from being forced to preside over same-sex ceremonies, “it does not adequately protect churches.”
He said that a church’s right to refuse to host same-sex weddings on its properties is narrow and limited, and that the law will not protect a church “if a same-sex couple asks to use the church buildings for post-solemnization celebrations and anniversary parties.”
“Any church that allows its property to be used by non-members for marriages between a man and a woman will be required to allow same-sex couples to host their weddings on its properties,” Hochberg said.
He added that “churches and religious organizations that allow weddings to be hosted on any of their properties that are not ‘regularly used by the religious organization for its religious purposes’ will almost certainly be required to allow those properties to be used for same-sex weddings.”
Hochberg said the law also does not protect individuals in wedding-related occupations who object to participating in same-sex weddings. These would include licensed non-clergy marriage “solemnizers” such as judges, and wedding photographers, planners and florists.
“This bill, as written, tramples the religious freedom of churches, religious organizations, religious non-clergy licensed solemnizers and people of faith who own businesses in the wedding-industry,” the attorney said. “Hawaii should protect religious freedom, not trample it.”
FOCUS ON HEALING
Andrade, a long-time veteran of this fight, said she is “cautiously optimistic” that good will come of this debate.
Although she has encountered anger and testiness on both sides, she said she has tried to keep her own message a positive one, never denigrating gays or same-sex marriage but consistently calling for the preservation of the traditional family and traditional marriage.
And while she quietly prays for her opposition, she said it is condescending to tell them directly, “I am praying for you.”
However this issue is concluded, she anticipates antagonism and resentment in its wake.
“We have a lot of healing to do, no matter what the outcome,” Andrade said.
