Civil unions legislation can draw thousands to the state Capitol, but the emotional issue may also bring a flood of new voters to the polls this fall.Opponents of a civil unions bill poised for passage in the Senate are promising political action if the measure clears the Legislature.
Lawmakers return to work Wednesday and will be greeted with House Bill 444, which was amended in the closing days of the 2009 session; it now is up for a Senate vote. If it passes, HB 444 will go back to the House.
According to the Senate’s description, HB 444 “extends the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities of spouses in a marriage to partners in a civil union.”
“If they have the votes to pass it, we will bring it to the majority caucus,” said House Speaker Calvin Say.
It is still questionable whether the bill can again pass the House. Say indicated he thinks its time may have passed.
“We just had a missed opportunity because it could have been addressed last year,” Say said in an interview last week.
Conservative Christian groups are promising to flood the Capitol with thousands of HB 444 opponents to get lawmakers to kill the bill.
“The polls show that the people don’t want it. This civil unions bill is too close to being a same-sex marriage bill,” said Garrett Hashimoto, chairman of the Hawaii Christian Coalition. Other polls sponsored by pro-civil union groups show support for the measure.
The massive rally promised for this weekend will foreshadow action in the November election, Hashimoto said. Democrats running for governor will be one of the coalition’s targets.
Hashimoto said neither Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who is exploring a run for governor, nor U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who plans to resign from Congress next month to run, would be satisfactory governors to conservative Christians.
Instead, the support will go to Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona, a Catholic who has spoken out strongly against HB 444.
Abercrombie supported the original civil unions bill and says the new version is still about a person’s constitutionally protected rights. Abercrombie notes that the Legislature has already passed a law saying that marriage is between a man and woman and thinks the new version of HB 444 would not change that.
Hannemann, a member of the Mormon church, which has strongly opposed same-sex marriage, has refused to answer questions about civil unions or same-sex marriage and whether he would support them if he were elected governor.
“Mufi has always tried to portray himself as a faith-based conservative, but Duke Aiona has always supported the faith-based community,” Hashimoto said. “He has proclaimed his faith strongly. Duke has always been there.
“It will our job, the conservatives, and those against the civil unions bill to make sure that Duke Aiona gets in,” he said.
Debi Hartmann, executive director of the state Democratic Party, said the new version of the civil unions bill simply extends reciprocal benefits to all who form a civil union and is not a same-sex marriage bill.
“I struggle with this outrage on the new Senate-amended bill. It is the compromise everyone was asking for,” Hartmann said, adding that the new bill “takes marriage out of the bill.”
Hartmann said she believes that Hawaii voters will differentiate between a civil unions issue and same-sex marriage.
“I don’t believe we as a society in Hawaii are a single-issue society and won’t allow one issue to determine whether you are a viable legislator,” Hartmann said.
Other groups, however, see the 2010 election as a new time to define Hawaii’s voters.
Dennis Arakaki, former state representative and a member of the Democratic Party, is also director of the Hawaii Family Forum and the Hawaii Catholic Conference. He sees this election as an opportunity.
“We really want to raise the level of voters participation,” Arakaki said. “I think this is the kind of issue that will make people care. We are going to be a little more aggressive in letting people know where the candidate stands.”
In opposition to that, the Democratic Party’s Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender caucus “will be doing our best to support candidates who voted for civil unions,” said Jo-Ann Adams, the caucus’ secretary.
“We will focus our efforts where there are opponents to legislators who supported the party platform on civil unions. Because we have a long-standing relationship with most legislators, we will be seeking their guidance on how we can best help in their campaigns,” Adams said.
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