'I will not defend same-sex marriage ban,' says Hawaii governor
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Seattle Gay News
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posted Friday, February 24, 2012 - Volume 40 Issue 08 'I will not defend same-sex marriage ban,' says Hawaii governorby Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer Hawaii governor Neil Abercrombie announced on February 12 that he will not defend his state's ban on same-sex marriages in federal court because he believes the law is unconstitutional. 'Under current law, a heterosexual couple can choose to enter into a marriage or a civil union. A same-sex couple, however, may only elect a civil union. My obligation as governor is to support equality under law. This is inequality, and I will not defend it,' Abercrombie said. Abercrombie, a Democrat elected in 2010, issued his announcement in response to a federal lawsuit filed in November. A Lesbian couple, Natasha Jackson and Janin Kleid, filed for a marriage license and were denied by the state's Health Department. They sued the department, claiming they were denied their 14th Amendment due process and equal protection rights. Another plaintiff, Gary Bradley, said that he and his partner were the first couple to enter into a civil union in Hawaii but did so only because they believed it would be 'futile' to apply for a marriage license. As governor, Abercrombie is named as a defendant in the suit, as is Hawaii's Health Department director Loretta Fuddy. The history of marriage equality in Hawaii is complex. In 1996, Hawaii became the first state in the country to put marriage equality on the agenda when the state Supreme Court ruled in Baehr v. Miike that refusing to grant marriage licenses to Gay and Lesbian couples was discriminatory. In 1998, however, Hawaii voters passed Constitutional Amendment 2, empowering the legislature to limit marriage rights to opposite-sex couples. Since civil unions were not addressed by the amendment, bills to establish them were introduced several times, but it was 2009 before one passed the legislature. Then-governor Lisa Lingle, a Republican, vetoed the 2009 civil unions bill. Lambda Legal and the ACLU then sued the state, claiming that same-sex couples must be accorded the same rights as opposite-sex couples. In February 2011, a new civil unions bill passed the Hawaii legislature and Abercrombie, by then the governor, signed it into law. It took effect in January of this year. Although Abercrombie says he will not defend discriminatory treatment of Gay and Lesbian couples, Fuddy, the Health Department director, believes that she is required to do so. 'The Department of Health is charged with implementing the law as passed by the Legislature,' she said. 'Absent any ruling to the contrary by competent judicial authority regarding constitutionality, the law will be enforced. Because I am being sued for administering the law, I will also defend it.' Hawaii Attorney General David Louie said his office will represent both Abercrombie and Fuddy in the lawsuit, despite their divergent positions. Louie said his office would 'erect appropriate firewalls' between the attorneys representing the governor and those representing Fuddy. 'In this case, both the governor and the director are being represented by separate teams of attorneys general, and appropriate protections have been put in place to ensure that both clients are being vigorously, and separately, represented,' Louie's office said. |
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