From: deb.price@glib.org
Date: Tue, 10 May 94 00:52:00 -0400 Eastern
 
'Just MAUI-ed' could soon apply to gay couples
(copyright: The Detroit News, Dec. 23, 1993)
By Deb Price
 
    A Hawaiian tidal wave powerful enough to reconfigure the
nation's social and political landscape is headed for the
mainland. Triggered by the attempt of three same-sex couples to
obtain marriage licenses, the slow-moving titan is likely to
cause quite a splash by 1995.
    Just a year ago the Hawaiian couples' lawsuit seemed unlikely
to create much of a ripple. For decades courts in other states
had flatly denied gay couples the right to marry legally.
    But Hawaii is not like other states. It's a delectable
tropical mixed salad of cultures and races with nearly as many
Buddhists as Baptists. Accommodating diversity is the norm.
    When the Hawaii Supreme Court agreed to hear the marriage
case, it accommodated gay couples by really listening. The court
heard the merits of their argument that refusing to issue a
marriage license to two people simple because they are the same
sex is, at heart, sex discrimination.
    In a monumental but preliminary ruling last May, the Hawaii
Supreme Court declared that state officials must prove that the
marriage ban "is justified by compelling state interests."
Otherwise, the ban must be lifted.
    In reaching that decision, the Hawaii court quoted from the
1967 U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning laws against
interracial marriage: "he freedom to marry has long been
recognized as one of the vital personal rights essential to the
orderly pursuit of happiness."
    Comparing interracial and same-sex marriage taboos, the
Hawaii court noted that as late as 1949 30 states outlawed
interracial marriage. Today the marriages of 45 percent of
Hawaiians would be illegal if the state had such a law.
    In the same-sex case, arguments about supposedly compelling
"state interests" now must be heard by a lower court before
making their way back to the state's top court. The final ruling
-- the one expected to flood gay hearts with joy -- will probably
come in 1995.
    Dan Foley, attorney for the same-sex couples, finds nothing
compelling about the arguments the state plans to offer. They
focus on procreation (an activity not limited to heterosexuals),
biological parenting, the cost of fairness, other states'
reactions and the impact on tourism. "We are confident we will
prevail," Foley says.
    Meanwhile, the case is being debated in Hawaii's court of
public opinion. Throngs of islanders testified at hearings before
state House Judiciary Committee Chairman Terrance Tom. The
Japanese American Citizens League, Afro-American Lawyers
Association and the Hawaii Women's Political Caucus are among the
groups supporting legal gay marriage.
    In newspaper ads, opponents warned of unleashing the "wrath
of God" and perhaps another hurricane.
    But the issue before the court is not a religious one. As the
Hawaii Supreme Court pointed out, "Marriage is a state-conferred
legal status." Churches make their own rules about which couples
to bless. Some turn down divorced or mixed-faith couples; a
growing number unite gay couples.
    The Rev. Maggie Tanis, a Harvard Divinity School grad, has
performed 50 gay weddings in just two years at Ke Anuenue O Ke
Aloha (Rainbow of Love) Metropolitan Community Church in
Honolulu. Only the words "by the power invested in me by the
state of Hawaii" are missing from those ceremonies, she says.
    Chairman Tom wants to ensure Hawaii continues to recognize
only mixed-sex marriages. Even though the state dropped impotence
and sterility as bars to marriage in 1984, he wants to make clear
that "the state issues licenses to those couples who appear to
present the biological possibility of producing offspring."
    Tom, of course, outraged childless and elderly couples and
much of the rest of the state.
    The coming tidal wave will not be held back by anyone's
less-than-compelling arguments. Gay Americans will win the right
to wed legally in Hawaii. After all, why should mixed couples be
the only tourists buying T-shirts that proclaim: "Just MAUI-ed"?