News, notes and anecdotes
on government and politics
Isle congressmen help
spike gay marriage ban
Hawaii's two congressmen were on the prevailing side even though they were in the minority last week in a vote on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages.
Reps. Neil Abercrombie and Ed Case were among the 186 members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against a proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. There were 227 yes votes. But that is 49 votes short of the two-thirds required for passage of a constitutional amendment.
"This ban would be almost unique among constitutional amendments because it curtails rather than expands individual rights and liberties," Abercrombie said.
Case added, "I do not believe we should amend our U.S. Constitution to foreclose the rights of minorities."
The amendment would have required the states to adopt a national definition of marriage.
Abercrombie and Case said marriage should be left to the individual states to define. A similar proposal died in the U.S. Senate, failing to even get a floor vote.
Hate crime definition
Rep. Galen Fox (R, Waikiki-Ala Moana) is renewing his call to expand the definition of hate crimes in Hawaii to include tourists as victims after two visitors were assaulted in separate incidents in Waikiki last month.State law already allows prosecutors to seek extended prison terms for convicts who select their victims based on the victims' perceived race, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin or sexual orientation.
Fox introduced legislation in the past session to add "status as a tourist" to the law. The bill failed to win approval.
"We realize that some categories of tourist can be victimized, and it would be easier to help them if we classified them as tourists," Fox said.
Gratia Bone, Republican candidate for state House District 21 (Kapahulu-Waikiki), said such a law would provide gay tourists an extra layer of protection.
"Many of these hate crimes are not reported because (the victims) may not want to be outed or (fear) that it would incite further aggression," Bone said.
A 25-year-old woman visiting from Oklahoma was attacked Sept. 23 on her way to Hula's Bar & Lei Stand with two other women. Pam Disel said a man punched her in the face after he asked her if she was gay and she said "yes." Disel suffered a concussion, broken jaw and fractures below her right eye, which was swollen nearly shut.
Five days earlier, Tim Noreuil, a 39-year-old visiting physician, was attacked after leaving Hula's. He said one of three males who approached him struck him on the head with a blunt object. He suffered facial injuries that required surgery. Noreuil had recently left Hula's, but told police he did not believe that had anything to do with the attack.
Legislature Bills & Hawaii Revised Statutes
