on-demand will be available in January, the Hawaii Supreme Court has effectively ended the drive to legalize gay marriage in the state. In a ruling Thursday, the court said the effort by homosexual couples was rendered moot by a 1998 amendment to the state constitution overwhelmingly approved by voters. The amendment gave lawmakers the authority to limit state-recognized marriages to opposite-sex couples.
"Thank you to the Hawaii Supreme Court for affirming what we've known all along - that marriage, by God's definition, is between opposite-sex couples," said Mike Gabbard, chairman of the Alliance for Traditional Marriage.
The high court considered an appeal of a lower court ruling that the state could not justify its 1994 ban on same-sex marriages. The judge in the case had ordered the state to grant marriage licenses to gay couples, but delayed the order pending the appeal. Lawmakers later drafted the amendment giving them the authority to pass the ban. Voters approved the proposal by a 2-to-1 margin last year.
Many in Hawaii's gay community expected the high court to grant equal protections to homosexuals, said Sue Reardon, a Kailua high school teacher who wants to marry her female partner.
"The people's vote was based on fear and a lack of knowledge and understanding," said Reardon, who was not a plaintiff. "But the Supreme Court is expected to understand, or at least to be knowledgeable of, civil rights. "This is a sad day for Hawaii."
Vermont's high court is now the only one in the nation currently facing the question of whether same-sex marriage should be legal. The Hawaii case drew attention after a 1993 state Supreme Court ruling that said the state's failure to recognize gay marriages amounted to gender discrimination.
The ruling set off preemptive legislating around the nation. At least 30 states banned gay marriages, and Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, which denied federal recognition of homosexual marriage and allowed states to ignore same-sex unions licensed elsewhere.
The ruling also led Hawaii lawmakers to pass the 1994 ban on gay marriage. What the court did this week was find that last year's amendment made the 1994 law valid, meaning the relief sought by the plaintiffs no longer existed and their case was moot.
"It's very difficult to see how they arrived at this decision," plaintiff Joseph Melillo said. "It's really a cop-out."
