Reflections On The Respect For Marriage Act

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

57% : Hawaii can be proud of initiating the marriage equality movement, despite its ups and downs along the way (Hawaii became the 15th state to approve same-sex marriage in 2013, after the Supreme Court overturned DOMA).
54% : Largely due to the energy and leadership of my co-counsel in Baehr v. Lewin, Evan Wolfson, and attorney Mary Bonauto, same-sex marriage cases were filed in Vermont and Massachusetts, with a civil unions victory in Vermont in 2000 (almost marriage) and a complete victory in Massachusetts in 2003.
50% : Same-sex couples lived together, with and without children, as families, but were just not legally recognized and given the rights and benefits of marriage.
49% : As the attorney who filed the first successful same-sex marriage case in Hawaii in 1991, Baehr v. Lewin, I am deeply moved by what has transpired in the last 31 years -- from zero states and countries recognizing same-sex marriage to all 50 states and 30-plus countries recognizing same-sex marriage today.
44% : People asked -- how can that be, same-sex couples can't marry, marriage is between a man and a woman?
43% : When Baehr v. Lewin was filed in 1991, same-sex marriage was considered an oxymoron.
43% : Finally, the public was able to see same-sex couples and families were not so different after all (as I told that CNN reporter).
43% : However, the fight continued between proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage, state by state, in the courts and legislatures, with more and more states recognizing same-sex marriage and public opinion changing from opposition to support.
39% : I said opposite-sex marriage would not be affected.
39% : After a Hawaii judge in December 1996 ruled that the state of Hawaii failed to demonstrate a compelling state interest after a two week trial where experts in psychology, psychiatry, sociology and pediatrics testified that same-sex marriage would be beneficial to families of same-sex couples and parents and have no detrimental impact on the families of opposite-sex couples or society at large, the Hawaii legislature in 1997 proposed a constitutional amendment authorizing itself to ban same-sex marriage.
38% : There was a backlash in Hawaii and across the nation with states adopting statutes and constitutional amendments rejecting same-sex marriage and the Congress enacting DOMA.
36% : The act will repeal the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that rejected same-sex marriage, and require federal and state governments to recognize same-sex marriages.
35% : The United States Supreme Court, with a turnover in justices, made the court a threat to civil rights and established precedent, overturning a woman's constitutional right to abortion and threatening to do the same with same-sex marriage.
29% : I said once those uncomfortable with the idea of same-sex marriage see same-sex marriages, that no harm comes from them, that no one would be forced to enter a same-sex marriage and no church would be required to recognize one, then the shock would wear off, and the public would come around.
29% : Finally in 2013, the United States Supreme Court overturned DOMA as unconstitutional discrimination against same-sex couples and in 2015 the same court ruled states could not ban same-sex marriage.

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