Hawaii approves pro-same-sex marriage amendment

Hawaii’s ballot initiative to safeguard marriage equality has been successful, with 52% of voters supporting it and 40% opposing it, according to ‘LGBTQ Nation’. Voters in the Aloha State were tasked with deciding whether to repeal a state constitutional amendment allowing the legislature to ban same-sex marriage, originally passed in 1998.

The ballot measure, known as Question 1, asked: “Shall the state constitution be amended to repeal the legislature’s authority to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples?” Though the wording may have confused some voters, a “yes” vote supported protecting marriage equality.

Jeff Hong, vice president of the ACLU of Hawaii board, told KHON2, “I’m glad that the people of Hawaii voted to remove discrimination from our bill of rights.” He noted that while polls indicated strong support for marriage equality among Hawaii voters, with a ratio of three to one, this support decreased due to the confusing wording of the ballot question. “That kind of double-negative speak is confusing,” he remarked.

Same-sex couples first challenged the state’s refusal to issue marriage licenses in 1993, leading to a ban on same-sex marriage in 1994. A trial court deemed the state discriminatory in 1996, but two years later, voters amended the constitution to empower the legislature to ban same-sex marriage, prompting the state supreme court to overturn the trial court’s decision.

Marriage equality was ultimately enacted by the state legislature in 2013. The 2015 Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges federally protected the right of same-sex couples to marry, but following the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision, which ended the federal right to an abortion, several states are now repealing anti-marriage amendments in anticipation of potential threats to other rights.

Recently, voters in California and Colorado also chose to remove anti-marriage language from their state constitutions.