House provision puts fixes to civil unions law at risk

A proposal to clarify the state’s civil unions law is advancing in the Senate, but senators would have to reach a compromise with House members if the bill is to survive the session.

The Senate version of the housekeeping bill does not include language approved by the House that would allow churches and other religious organizations to bar civil union ceremonies from their properties.

If a compromise is not reached, the measure would die, and none of the proposed legislative fixes in the bill would take effect — potentially putting at risk some benefits for couples wishing to enter a civil union.

"The House is interested in keeping its position, so we’ll see," said Rep. Pono Chong (D, Mau­na­wili-Kane­ohe), House majority leader. "We would prefer to give the religious organizations that exemption."

Senate leaders seem equally firm on their position.

"The Senate position is pretty clear," said Sen. Clayton Hee (D, Kaneohe-Kahuku), Judiciary chairman. "They would have to be persuasively successful in arguing that it doesn’t violate the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, for openers — equal rights, equal protection."

The full Senate is expected to pass the bill in a floor vote Tuesday, which would send the bill to a conference committee.

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. A working group tasked with implementing the law discovered some procedural issues faced by prospective civil union couples.

Those included covering a "gap" faced by couples already in a reciprocal beneficiary relationship who are entering a civil union.

The "gap" would occur because reciprocal beneficiaries must dissolve that relationship before entering into a civil union, creating 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.

Housekeeping bills to fix the gap and other technical issues were expected to easily gain approval until the religious exemption was added in the House.

"We went back to the original intent, which was to deal with gaps that were in the civil union legislation last year," Hee said.

The law already exempts church officials and ministers from liability if they object to performing a ceremony.

A similar version of the bill in the House appears dead after it failed to move out of its final committee in time for next week’s second crossover, when lawmakers again exchange bills before heading to conference committee to negotiate the final versions of bills.