Subject: Hawaii Gay Marriage Project answers Current Questions on What it Means??
From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 1997 00:23:03 -0400 (EDT)

In response to the quetions asked by CW - Hawaii Gay Marriage Project - GLEA
Foundation provides the following answers below the questions:

I am sending this to entire alert list, because I have gotten numerous
inquiries of one or more of questions below.

do good

Bill
Hawaii Gay Marriage Project

In a message dated 97-04-18 19:17:46 EDT, [email-masked] (C W
Belcher) writes:

<< I have several questions I hope you all can shed some light on:
 
 1.  Do the anti-same-gender-marriage forces have enough votes in the Senate
 to get a 2/3 majority on the constitutional amendment this week?  

Yes  - Actual vote is after 10 days from yesterday.
 
 2.  Although I have seen the 70% figure for Hawai'ians who oppose our
 marriage rights bandied about endlessly, I seem to remember someone talking
 about another poll that found that when Hawai'ians were asked specifically
 whether they would support a *constitutional amendment* banning equal
 marriage rights, only 51% of those polled said they would.  Can anyone shed
 some light on this?  

Yes - Honolulu Star-Bulletin Spring 1996 poll showed 71 % against same-sex
marriage, but only 51% wanting a constitutional amendment to prevent it.
 There was a 4% margin of error.  Those who opposed an amendment were 45%
 
 3.  What are our chances of actually defeating the amendment in Nov. 1998
 through a concerted education campaign?  Does anyone have a sense of the
 public's mood on the constitutional amendment?  Are they committed hard and
 fast to a bigotted, reactionary position?  Or is there room for movement? 
 Do Hawai'ians hold their Constitution in high esteem and are usually wary
 of tampering with it?  Or is it just considered a mundane set of laws that
 should be altered often or whenever its provisions get in the way of a
 desired law (as is the case in Texas, home of a bizarre, micro-managing
 post-reconstruction constitution with about 250 amendments)?  Can we and
 should we direct our energies in that direction?  

We believe that if we have to fight this battle we can win.  We believe that
a poll taken today about how many want to eliminate the equal protection
clause from some people - or worded same as last year as to who believes we
should have an amendment to ban same-sex marriage that we would now have less
than 50% that would want the amendment.  Believe the change happened as a
result of Romer our our own court decision on our lawsuit.  A lot of
understanding and education has ocurred since those decisions on the
importance of equal protection and factual proof that discrimination ocurred
in Hawaii's marriage law.
 
 4.  Is it possible for the Hawai'ian Supreme Court to delay hearing
 arguments and/or ruling on Baehr v. Miike until after Nov. 1998?  Are they
 able to push cases into their next session, which I assume such a delay
 would require?  If so, do they routinely do this?  Finally, if they decide
 to do this, can this delay be challenged?  

Possible but not likely.  The previous marriage law was found
unconstitutional as discriminatory thus there is nothing on the books to say
we should not have equal marriage rights.  The amendment that is proposed
says the legislature can determine marriage solely between a man and a woman,
but does not say that it shall do so.  Only time for the legislature to have
the authority to limit marriage would be after the amendment should pass
giving them the authority to limit it.

A lot of ifs and no facts that that would happen.

Court based upon law and what is before them is expected to provide a
positive verdict by end of year.
 
 5.  If the part of Baehr v. Miike that challenged the government's right to
 limit marriage licenses to opposite-gender couples is rendered moot by the
 constitutional amendment, can the other part of the case regarding unequal
 provision of benefits stand on its own?  If not, can a new case be brought
 on those grounds?  

We do not believe it will go this far.  Cannot do all the analysis yet to
answer this.
 
 6.  How serious is the federal suit to reinstate the con-con vote?  To me,
 the Alabama case and the Hawai'ian case seem totally different.  Does the
 federal court or federal circuit where the suit was filed have a history of
 intervening in state issues such as this?  

It is believed the appeal will fail, thus no concon.  Its facts on the
mainland case were mistaken as to why that vote count was changed.