Hawaii lawmakers push forward on civil unions

The Hawaii House of Representatives has given a civil unions bill final legislative approval Thursday. The bill’s next stop is the governor’s office, where Republican Gov. Linda Lingle has not yet said whether she will attempt a veto.

The House voted 31-20 in favor of the measure, which passed the Senate in January.

The measure grants gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits that the state provides to married couples.

If it becomes law, Hawaii will join California, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon and Washington in granting essentially all the rights of marriage to same-sex couples without authorizing marriage itself. Five other states permit same-sex marriage: Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Marriage equality has had a long and rocky journey in the Aloha State ever since the 1990s, when the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling nearly made Hawaii the first state to legalize same-sex marriage in 1993. This was before voters in the state overwhelmingly approved the nation’s first “defense of marriage” constitutional amendment in 1998.

Earlier this year, the House declined to act for fear that the Democratic-controlled House would have too few votes to override Lingle if she vetoed it.

The issue was revived on the last day of this year’s legislative session when House Majority Leader Blake Oshiro made a motion to reconsider it.

In January, no roll call was taken on the decision to postpone the vote, which shielded representatives from having their positions on the record.

The measure is a compromise of sorts, reserving the right to marry to opposite-sex couples, but providing equal protections and rights under the state’s law for same-sex couples — but will it be enough?