‘Housekeeping’ bills aim to clarify civil unions law

Legislative "fixes" to the civil unions law that took effect this year are working their way through the Legislature.

Proposals in each chamber, introduced by majority Demo­crats and the Governor’s Office, are expected to be heard in the coming weeks.

The bills would not substantively change the law, but address concerns that were raised by a task force that was charged with implementing it.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Clayton Hee described them as "housekeeping" measures that were not expected to be controversial.

"They’re more clarifying the law, making it consistent throughout the statutes," said Hee (D, Kahuku- Kaneohe).

Act 1, adopted last year, 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.

The Department of Health, which is charged with handling civil union applications, adopted an online system for processing applications and ensured officials who perform ceremonies had proper training and certification.

Some issues raised by the task force required changes to the law.

Those included addressing the so-called "gap period" faced by couples already in a reciprocal beneficiary relationship.

Because of procedures in the new law, those couples face a time period in which they are covered neither by a reciprocal beneficiary relationship nor a civil union, which could put benefits such as insurance coverage at risk.

The "gap" would occur because reciprocal beneficiaries must dissolve that relationship before entering into a civil union. This requires sending a notarized letter to the Department of Health, which acknowledges receipt and sends notice to the applicant of the dissolution, a process that typically can take weeks.

A proposal in the governor’s package of bills would remove that language from the statute and instead state that a previous reciprocal beneficiary relationship would automatically terminate upon the entry into a civil union.

The proposal also would clarify, among other issues, that a person in a civil union is not eligible to enter into a marriage or another reciprocal beneficiary relationship and states that the Family Court has jurisdiction over divorce, annulment or separation of civil unions.

"Basically, for administrative proposals, I’ll usually give them hearings," said state Rep. Gil Keith-Agaran, House Judiciary Committee chairman. "I’ll probably look closely at it to see if there really needs to be a change in the language.

"I don’t know if they’d be very controversial. They’re just for further clarification."