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The state Department of Health continues work on a computerized system for processing applications for civil unions, but it is unknown yet whether the system will be available for use before Jan. 1, when the new civil unions law goes into effect.
The state had planned to begin processing applications before the law’s official start date, so couples could partake in civil union ceremonies early on the morning of Jan. 1. But the Attorney General’s Office still is formulating an opinion on whether early processing would be legal.
"It’s premature to say what the recommendation is going to be," Deputy Attorney General Jill Nagamine said Wednesday during a meeting of a task force covened by the Legislature to study the implementation of Act 1, which was passed this year.
Meanwhile, the health department plans to organize training sessions for individuals interested in becoming agents for processing applications and for those who wish to perform solemnization ceremonies.
Task force members also are seeking ways to get hotels to assist with coordinating civil unions in the same way some assist in organizing weddings. The task force is drafting a letter that would be distributed to hotels to inform and answer questions about the new law.
Act 1 allows couples regardless of gender to enter into civil unions, gaining a legal status with all the rights, benefits, privileges, protections and responsibilities of traditional marriage.
A subcommittee of the task force continues to study legal issues within the bill to craft legislation for the 2012 session to adopt "fixes" that cannot be corrected through administrative rules.
Those issues include amending the law to eliminate a provision that couples in an existing reciprocal beneficiary relationship in Hawaii must first terminate that before entering into a civil union. The current language leads to a so-called "gap period" in which couples would be covered under neither status — putting some benefits such as health insurance at risk — while awaiting paperwork to be processed.