Senate schedules civil unions vote

[The Sushi Bandit]

Source: Honolulu Advertiser

Breaking News/Updates
Updated at 12:57 p.m., Thursday, January 21, 2010

Hawai'i Senate schedules civil unions vote

The state Senate has scheduled a vote tomorrow on a bill that would allow same-sex and heterosexual couples to enter into civil unions.

The bill would give couples in civil unions the same rights, benefits and responsibilities as marriage under state law.

The Senate floor session is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m.

The bill stalled in the Senate after it was amended on the second-to-last day of the session last year. It is set for a final vote tomorrow unless there is another attempt at an amendment.

Some senators want to amend the bill to change the effective date, which is Jan. 1, 2010. While legal, some fear the retroactive date would be a flaw that could concern the state House or be used as a pretext for a veto by Gov. Linda Lingle.

If the bill is approved by the Senate, it would move back to the state House, where lawmakers passed a civil-unions bill last session that applied only to same-sex couples.

State House leaders have said they would see whether the Senate gets a two-thirds majority — 17 of 25 senators — to override a veto before deciding how to proceed.




Read more: http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20100121/BREAKING01/100121045/Senate+schedules+civil+unions+vote

[KamaAina]

1. Maika'i no! (very fine, indeed)

They couldn't get it done at the end of last session. The day before, I had met a woman, now among my very best friends, who confided in me her desire to be married on Maui. Thing is, her intended's name is "Sara", and Hawai'i has been saddled with a Prop H8-style amendment for years. So you can imagine how I felt when I woke up the very next morning only to read that those dunderheads (who I worked with regularly when I lived therer) had failed to even get civil unions done. I nearly kicked the newspaper rack over! :grr: :banghead: :nuke:

Oh well, if worse came to worst, she could always settle... :loveya: