Hawaii state legislators on Wednesday approved civil unions for gay couples, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie said he would sign it into law.
-- From "Hawaii lawmakers approve civil unions for gay couples" by Suzanne Roig, Reuters 2/16/11
The Hawaii Senate approved the proposed law by a vote of 18-5, sending it to Abercrombie for his signature. It had earlier been approved by the House.
Throughout his campaign last fall, Abercrombie said he supported laws giving same-sex couples in civil unions the same rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities of spouses in a marriage.
The law Abercrombie will sign is essentially the same as the measure that then-Governor Linda Lingle, a Republican, vetoed in July when she cited a "flawed" legal process as her reason for not giving her approval.
It would make the Aloha State the seventh state to grant essentially the same rights of marriage to same-sex couples through civil unions or similar laws.
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From "Hawaii Legislature approves same-sex civil unions" by The Associated Press 2/16/11
The anxiously awaited civil unions vote came immediately after the Senate confirmed the state's first openly gay Supreme Court justice, Sabrina McKenna.
Hawaii has been a battleground in the gay rights movement for nearly 20 years, dating to a 1993 state Supreme Court decision that nearly legalized gay marriage. The ruling would have made Hawaii the first state to allow same-sex couples to wed, but it didn't take effect while voters were given a chance to decide.
They responded five years later by overwhelmingly passing the nation's first "defense of marriage" constitutional amendment, approved by 69 percent of voters who gave the Legislature the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.
The amendment resulted in a law banning gay marriage in Hawaii but left the door open for civil unions.
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From "'Historic' bill OK'd by Senate" by B.J. Reyes, Honolulu Star-Advertiser 2/17/11
The president of Dignity USA-Honolulu, who founded what he called the first "gay church" when he moved to Hawaii 41 years ago, was moved to tears at what he witnessed.
The governor's office said details on the bill's signing were forthcoming.
Senate Bill 232 allows all couples -- same-sex and heterosexual -- to enter into a civil union, a legal status with all the rights, benefits, protections and responsibilities as traditional marriage.
Former City Councilman Gary Okino, a civil-unions opponent who lost his bid for state House last year . . . had testified against the bill, citing concerns of families worried that same-sex lifestyles would be taught to public-school students with no option for parents to remove their child.
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