Subject: HAWAII PRIMER (please update--earlier version sent was wrong
From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 7 Jan 1997 21:34:01 -0500 (EST)

Hawaii Marriage Primer
(revised 12/96)

t  December 17, 1990, in Baehr v. Lewin  (since renamed Baehr v. Miike),
three same-sex couples, Ninia Baehr and Genora Dancel, Patrick Lagon and
Joseph Melilio, and Tammi Rodrigues and Antoinette Pregil, filed applications
for marriage licenses with the Hawaii Department of Health, the state agency
with jurisdiction over marriage.  They were immediately denied licenses.     

t  May 1, 1991, the couples filed a lawsuit against the state to obtain the
licenses.  The case is named for Baehr, one of the plaintiffs, and Lewin (now
Miike), Director of the State Department of Health.  

t  October 1, 1991, the Hawaii Court of appeals ruled against the plaintiffs;
they appeal.     

t  May 5, 1993, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that the lower court erred in
immediately ruling against the plaintiffs, and issued a landmark ruling
indicating that the state would have to prove a "compelling state interest"
in discriminating against same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses, if it
wished to continue this discriminatory practice.  The basis of the ruling was
the fact that Hawaii has a constitutional amendment prohibiting
discrimination on the basis of sex.  (The court found that discriminating
against gay couples constituted sex discrimination because if Alice wanted to
marry Fred, a man, she could, but if she wanted to marry Jane, a woman, she
could not, etc.)  The case was sent back to the Circuit Court for another
trial based on this order. 

t  December 8, 1995, Hawaii's Commission on Sexual Orientation voted 5-2 to
recommend marriage rights for same-sex couples.  This represents the first
time that an official state body has endorsed marriage rights for gay
couples.  

t  September 10, 1996,  the case is reheard at the Circuit level.  The state
attempts to prove its "compelling interest" in denying marriage licenses to
gay couples is the need for traditional, biological families.  

t  December 3, 1996,  Judge Kevin Chang rules that licenses must be issued;
the state appeals, and a stay of execution of the order is granted.  (Licenes
will not be issued until appeal ends; around early 1998.)    

Because of the way the Hawaii Supreme Court has already ruled, it is very
likely that plaintiffs--the same-sex couples--will prevail in this case.
 Nothing short of a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as
possible only between male-female couples can stop same-sex marriage from
becoming a reality in Hawaii.