Senate Passes Same Sex Marriage Bill

by State Senator Sam Slom November 4, 2013 Senate Minority Blog

The State Senate passed the Senate Bill 1 (SB1) on Wednesday October 30 which will approve same gender marriages for the State of Hawaii if it becomes law. The vote on the Senate floor was 20 in favor of SB 1 to 4 not in favor. I along with Senators Gabbard, Kim and Kouchi were the only ones to oppose the same sex marriage bill. Senator Glenn Wakai was excused from the vote because his mother died that morning.

The bill is now in the State House of Representatives where it has been subject to 3 days of hearings that started on Thursday October 31. The 4th day for the continued hearing is today (November 4) starting at 11:00 a.m. in the State Capitol Auditorium. The bill is being heard by the House Committees on Judiciary and Finance. More than 20,000 people have sent in written testimony and at least 5,100+ people have signed up to testify in person.

More than 12 hours of testimony from hundreds of people were heard on Monday, October 28 in the State Senate Judiciary and Labor (JDL) Committee.  At the end of the hearing the JDL Committee voted to pass SB1 to the full Senate by a 5 to 2 vote with Senator Gabbard and I in opposition..

The latest status for SB 1 as well as the Senate Committee Report, hearing notices and copies of all of the written testimony from both the Senate and House is available online at: LINK

Should SB1 become law, the long term consequences of the measure will be far reaching, touching not only the institution of marriage itself, but also into areas of religion, education, sports, business, the community and more.

A large rally of thousands who are opposed to SB1 was held on the Capitol grounds Monday afternoon October 28. More than 4,000 people were in attendance.

One of my constituents stated in an email: “what a disappointment that the yes voting senators showed no evidence that they really listened to the majority of the testimonies today. Their minds were made up and today’s was a futile exercise!”

I say never give up the fight as there are always other options we can take in order to uphold values that we so cherish.

 Senate Judiciary & Labor Committee hearing on SB 1 October 28.

 Crowd at Auditorium for JDL hearing 10-28-2013

 Thousands showed up to rally against SB 1. Oct. 28, 2013.

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