Civil unions are matter of rights

The civil unions bill is a legal issue and not a religious one. There are liberal churches in favor of it and conservative churches against. But we are not a theocracy like Iran. We are a democracy and expect our legislators to make decisions based on the Constitution.

We are a straight couple with straight children who see this as a civil rights issue. We can't think of any way this bill threatens our marriage.

We hope this bill passes so all families can be respected and protected.

Myths surround civil unions bill

There is a moral imperative to pass House Bill 444. I have heard all the arguments against it and I would like to address the main ones.

» “;It will redefine marriage.”; No, it won't. You can have a marriage of two businesses, for God's sake. Webster's definition No. 2 defines marriage as between two persons of the same sex.

» “;The Bible says marriage is between a man and a woman.”; No one is trying to force the church (or any religion) to perform same-sex marriages. Wake up! Yours isn't the only religion.

» “;It's the will of the people. The courts shouldn't be allowed to decide.”; It was the “;will of the people”; in nearly half the states to make interracial marriage a crime until the Supreme Court ruled against the people's will in 1967.

Look, I can understand being a little uncomfortable trying to explain two men holding hands to your kids. But that's going to happen with or without HB 444. And, truth be told, I'm uncomfortable talking about heterosexual sex with my daughter. Know this: I would be rightfully ashamed to tell my children I was for “;the will of the people”; in 1967, and I am proud to be on the right side of the civil rights issue of our generation.

Recent rally was bias on display

I'm appalled by the recent rally at the state Capitol against the civil unions bill. It all looks so respectable and Christian, yet what was the object of the crowds of white-shirted true-believers who turned up? To deny to others the rights they enjoy themselves and to raise the level of intolerance, bigotry and hate in our society. In this they are no different from the crowds of white supremacists who rallied in the South during the 1960s against the passage of civil rights for African Americans. They, too, claimed that civil rights for others were a violation of their own equal rights, an intrusion by the government and the courts on their freedom of choice, and that civil rights for all would corrupt their children and undermine society.

Pathetically, many of those who attended the nasty gay-bashing rally at the Capitol would have been disenfranchised themselves by such arguments. But hate has no logic. If the civil unions bill fails, it will be another shameful day—and there have been quite a few recently—for the people of Hawaii.

Civil unions step in right direction

What's most striking to me is intolerance—for as a naturalized citizen, I moved to this country for its known tolerance of different people. Intolerance and open discrimination based on religious prejudice, abused by unscrupulous politicians, is most damaging to the very idea of democracy.

Civil union law, for the people of the same sex, is in fact a step short of full equality under the law, but it is a step in right direction. Remember that once even people with medical disabilities were considered social outcasts. Now almost nobody in the U.S. even considers such an attitude right only because most of the people at certain locality or state or country think that it is right.

HB 444 a danger to our children

Please don't mess with our children.

For legislators to say in HB 444 that homosexual couplings have the same legal standing as conven-tional marriage is contrary to the moral standards that have held society together for thousands of years.

This is very destructive. Messing with the rules of society messes with our kids. It messes with the parents' rights and responsibilities to establish moral standards for their children.

Passing a law that redefines marriage will put parents into the position of having to choose to teach their children a moral standard they hold to be true or one that is contradictory, or a double standard. Thus, passage of HB 444 would force a moral dilemma that would violate the most critical aspect of the parent-child relationship—trust.

Society is already messed up in so many ways. We don't need to add something like HB 444 to further mess with our kids.

HB 444 in conflict with court ruling

HB 444 is a vehicle intended to legalize civil unions and thus alter the state's marriage laws. Its proponents say that civil unions are essentially the same as same-sex marriage. That puts HB 444 in direct conflict with Hawaii's marriage laws, which over a decade ago embodied the peoples' rejection of same-sex marriage. Hawaii's legislators, backed by a super-majority of Hawaii voters in 1998, disallowed same-sex marriage. In 1999, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that because of the 1998 marriage amendment:

» Hawaii's equal protection clause no longer applies to its marriage law;
» Hawaii's marriage law no longer violates the equal protection clause; and
» Hawaii's law limiting marriage to “;a man and a woman”; is constitutionally valid and must be given full force and effect.