After much examination, historic law coming due

On Tuesday, Hawaii will be the state that bends the arc of moral justice a few more degrees toward justice and confirms the rights enjoyed by the many on the few.

If last week’s votes hold firm.

The state Senate is lining up to vote as did the House to legalize gay marriage.

It has not happened quickly, it has not happened without much examination, the action was not sprung on an unassuming electorate, and we have been talking about whether gay people could marry since 1990 when three same-sex couples applied for a marriage license and were denied — but the movement is nearing a finish.

Democratic Sen. Clayton Hee, who helped shepherd the bill first through his Judiciary Committee and then the entire Senate, sees the history in the vote.

"It is not that big a deal, but it is monumental in its achievement," Hee said in an interview.

Opponents rest their argument on two pillars: The measure is rushed coming just before the January opening of the 2014 legislative session; and the bill would have uncertain impacts on religious groups that oppose same-sex marriage.

Unsaid in both arguments is just a simple inability to accept differences in people.

There is an unsaid debate that senators would prefer a bill that does not lose public accommodation protections with overly broad religious exemptions.

Both House and Senate versions of the bill accomplish the real goal: allowing gays the freedom to marry just like opposite-gender couples.

Hee received an email from Edie Windsor — the woman whose suit was taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court in its decision to overturn portions of the federal Defense of Marriage Act — urging passage of either version.

"I am writing to ask you to do whatever it takes to get a bill passed, no matter what, even with religious exemptions," Windsor wrote.

If you are gay, you know precisely what right you do not have today and what can change this week.

"Anytime you can participate in an issue of equality and justice and the deliverance of those standards to people, it is very difficult to describe that — but there are these people who have been kicked around, they have been talked to in derogatory terms, they have been forced into a closet," said Hee, who described the historic move as "like desegregation."

And, if you are not gay? What will happen after the vote? Much has been made of government forcing its way into classrooms, homes and bedrooms — and none of it has been substantiated.

Hee said the law would be about giving rights to gay people, not taking anything away from others.

"When we passed the civil unions law, we heard many of the same predictions and fears. Nothing happened, it didn’t change anything. It is about a class of people who suddenly will be treated like everyone else," Hee said.

Old-timers can remember the local maxim "Cool head, main thing." Today we focus on Hawaii’s well-deserved reputation for tolerance.

"We have all always gotten along, family, friends, school teachers, we have all gotten along and the gay community is a part of that," Hee said. "To me, it is inexplicable to put it that they are over there, and we are over here."

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Richard Borreca writes on politics on Sundays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Reach him at rborreca@staradvertiser.com