Remember that civil unions bill going through the Hawaii Legislature? It ended up passing by a wide margin in the House, but in the Senate Judiciary Committee it failed to pass by a 3-3 vote. It turns out that the full Senate can actually pull bills through committee if they’ve ended up in a tie, and on Wednesday the Senate cast their vote.
Eighteen of the twenty-five State Senators said they publicly support civil unions for homosexual couples. Unfortunately the vote to pull the bill from committee was defeated 18-6.
The Family Equality Coalition sent out a rather gracious letter in defeat. The anti-civil union crowd was a little less than gracious:
What I found most hurtful was the people in the gallery who erupted into uncontrollable cheering and applause everytime a senator spoke in opposition to the bill. It was clear that Senate President Colleen Hanabusa was not happy with the uproars as she tried her best the quell the mob-like crowd, dressed in red, that took over the gallery. You would think a bunch of church-going, bible-toting, religious zealots would be more respectful. Shame on them!
Hopefully the tide is turning, and discrimination against homosexual people can end in Hawaii in the near future.
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