10 years later, Hawaii's marriage equality law has overwhelming support

Dec. 1—In 1998, 69 % of Hawaii residents supported a constitutional amendment that marriage should be reserved only for opposite-sex genders. Today same-sex marriages have about 70 % support locally and nationally.

Saturday marks 10 years since marriage equality became law in Hawaii and helped reverse what had been overwhelming opposition locally and around the country for so-called same-sex marriage.

Asked about the significance of signing Senate Bill 1, House Draft 1 into law a decade ago, former Gov. Neil Abercrombie choked up and said it was "by far " his most important act as governor "because it changed lives. Excuse me. I'm a little bit emotional."

To this day, Abercrombie gets stopped on the street in Chinatown and in airports as far away as Washington, D.C., and thanked for his signature and support for marriage equality in the islands.

"When you hold public office, literally thousands of people put their faith and trust in you, " Abercrombie said. "When it came to marriage equality, I lived up to that faith and trust."

Dan Foley represented early litigants in the fight for marriage equality as an attorney and later presided over one of the first same-sex marriages in Hawaii as a judge.

No other social issue in Hawaii and the rest of the country has seen such a huge swing from overwhelming opposition to overwhelming support, Foley said—not abortion, not voting rights, nor civil rights, which remain under attack in some parts of America decades after they were enshrined into law.

In 1998, 69 % of Hawaii residents supported a constitutional amendment that marriage should be reserved only for opposite-sex couples. Today, same-sex marriages have about 70 % support locally and nationally.

"It's completely flipped so dramatically, " Foley said. "You can't find any other social movement where public opinion has changed so dramatically in just a couple decades."

Getting here didn't come without a cost.

Then-state Rep. Cynthia Thielen faced fierce backlash from her Republican colleagues who condemned her and tried to get her voted off the House Judiciary Committee where she held the swing vote in a special 2013 legislative session to move the marriage equality bill out of committee and make Hawaii the 14th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

"It was the right thing to do, " Thielen said. "It was that clear. But I was sitting on the floor feeling like there were spears in my back as they proposed a motion on the floor to remove me from the Judiciary (Committee ) because I supported marriage equality. That was, so called, not the Republican position."

There were five days of hearings in front of the House Judiciary and Finance committees that lasted into the night and saw 4, 064 people testify in opposition, most of them bused to the Capitol auditorium by Hawaii churches, recalled House Speaker Scott Saiki, who advocated for marriage equality as the then-House majority leader.

"The No. 1 argument against same-sex marriage was that same-sex marriages would detrimentally affect people's quality of life, but obviously that didn't happen, " Saiki said. "Today it's probably taken for granted. It's settled.

"But it's not like it was a slam dunk."

Thirty-seven states had banned same-sex marriages. Then-President Bill Clinton signed the so-called "Defense of Marriage Act, " which restricted marriages to couples of opposite genders, and same-sex marriages were opposed by then-Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden, who later as president repealed the Defense of Marriage Act.

In 1998, Hawaii voters gave the state Legislature the power to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples only.

Locally, Foley was stunned at the reaction to the idea of marriage equality.

"I didn't realize how conservative we actually were on this particular issue, so I was kind of taken aback and naive on that, " he said. "Hawaii, like all the other states, have since evolved."

Inside the Capitol auditorium in 2013, "the hearings went on for hours and hours every day. People said they couldn't testify, so we gave them a second chance, " Saiki said. "Then there were more complaints so we gave them a third chance. On the fifth day, (then-House Speaker ) Joe Souki said enough was enough."

SB 1, HD 1 went to Abercrombie for signature, which he signed on Nov. 13, 2013. The new law went into effect Dec. 2, 2013, and immediately was followed by a flurry of same-sex marriages just after midnight.

On Dec. 17, 2013, then-Judge Foley presided over his first marriage equality wedding—exactly 23 years after the first same-sex couple applied for a Hawaii marriage license.

Foley also faced his own backlash for his earlier advocacy in his successful lawsuit in Baehr v. Lewin and later Baehr v. Miike in which three same-sex couples successfully argued that Hawaii's prohibition of same-sex marriage violated the state Constitution.

Before the House voted to send SB 1, HD 1 to Abercrombie, Saiki told his House colleagues at the time in written remarks : "When the Hawaii Supreme Court made its initial ruling in Baehr versus Lewin in 1993, it remanded the case to the circuit court so that a trial could be held to determine whether our marriage statute met the constitutional standard. The Judge who presided over the trial was Circuit Court Judge Kevin Chang, who now serves as a federal magistrate. The trial ran for six weeks and was subject to intense public scrutiny. At the conclusion, Judge Chang ruled that based upon the evidence, the state did not meet its burden, and that the statute was therefore unconstitutional. It was Judge Chang who categorically ruled that our marriage statute was unconstitutional.

"All of us, and particularly the advocates, must continue to be respectful, because true equality will be attained not simply by changing laws, but by changing people's perceptions and opinions, " Saiki said at the time.

But in 2000, when Foley's nomination to the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals came up for Senate confirmation, one-third of the Senate voted against his confirmation because of his earlier advocacy for same-sex marriages.

In an email to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Nikos Leverenz—manager of the Hawaii Health &Harm Reduction Center—said : "Marriage equality is a reality today because attorney Dan Foley championed the right of Nina Baehr and Genora Dancel and other same-sex couples to be legally recognized by state government.

"When the Hawaii Supreme Court indicated that a policy of prohibition might run afoul of our state constitution's equal rights provision, there was pushback resulting in a ballot question authorizing the legislature to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. Scott Saiki, David Tarnas, and Ed Case were among those who rightfully voted against it.

"The current provision in our state constitution that still empowers legislative limits on marriage should be repealed and replaced with language affirming the rights of same-sex couples to marry. The legislature should consider measures next year to shore up Hawaii's constitution to provide that marriage rights not be abridged on the basis of sex."

Foley said the national and local change in attitudes to same-sex marriage is the result of older generations seeing their family members identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer—while younger generations wonder why marriage equality was ever a question.

Saiki noted, "It really is a generational issue."

Thielen, a grandmother of 13, said, "For the younger people, it's 'What's the big deal ?'"