Posted on 09/09/2013 7:25:08 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Gov. Neil Abercrombie on Monday called for a special legislative session to move forward on a bill that would legalize gay marriage.
If lawmakers pass a bill, Hawaii would join 13 U.S. states and the District of Columbia in allowing gay marriage. The special session is scheduled to begin Oct. 28.
The bill is the culmination of 20 years of discussion, Abercrombie told reporters during a news conference at the Hawaii Capitol. …
Abercrombie acknowledged that some people will be against the bill because they disagree with the concept of gay marriage, but he said it includes provisions—including a religious exemption—to protect First Amendment rights. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
barf alert.
Yes, Hawaii was the impetus to enact DOMA. They were seriously talking about it back then.
Indeed - it was 1993 when Hawaii’s state Supreme Court ruled that denying licenses to gay couples was discriminatory.
The issue seems like it’s only a couple years old, but they’ve been actively working in it for *decades*.
WE have seen in England that the religious exemption is not worth diddly to the homos - once they have the legislation passed they will go after the exemption in court saying it is discriminatory.
Mel
The exemption is in fact illusory. It says churches may restrict marriages to opposite sex couples, but only if their church only marries church members to each other and they do not allow the public to use their facilities or attend their services. (I.e., they are the equivalent of a closed private club.)
Well I have always thought that marriage in a church should require membership but as to attend their services that is a nonsense - a solution could be to have a visitors book like any “club” although I can see that being a bit of a stumbling block!
Mel
Forced celebration of sodomy.
Special session.
And this nation isn’t going to hell? Who wants to assert that nonsense anymore?
Old Yellowfangs doin’ his liberal thang once again.
“Dreams come true.....in blue (state) Hawaii....”
We should apologize to the Japanese for shooting down twenty-nine of their aircraft on December 7, 1941.
;^)
All this tyranny has never been about “love” but all about persecution of the Christian church. Somehow, the Mohammedans will be left alone.
Does the law spell it out that specifically? How can a church acquire members unless visitors can come and decide if they want to join?
England had a provision too, how long did that last before it was in court?
it’s not like it is illegal to change churches
Not yet, anyway. However, people who leave one church to join another will still have to visit first before they can join.
nobody is going to be stopped from visiting
You can bet the farm on it. What can be "granted" can be rescinded. An orthodox Jew said it best during the NY marriage law debate a couple of years ago - "The road to Hell is paved with religious exemptions."
Let the 1st Amendment be all the "religious exemption" we need.
“England had a provision too”
What England *doesn’t* have is freedom of religion. You can’t extrapolate to what will happen here.
This is why a state religion is such a bad idea - the state eventually starts dictating terms.
As long as the churches don’t rent their property to the public, are they safe? I’m not Roman Catholic but I assume all Roman Catholic churches limit their facilities for wedding use to Roman Catholic weddings only which by definition would only be 1 man to 1 woman.
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