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Hawaii has recognized since 2013 with the Marriage Equality Act the right of same-sex couples to marry. Since 2015 with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, the fundamental right to marry has been guaranteed to same-sex couples throughout the nation. For approximately a decade, marriage equality has been the norm.

Some may have forgotten how contentious the fight for marriage equality, like other social justice and civil rights struggles, was in Hawaii.

When the fight for the right to marry was first taken up in the early to mid-1990s and the Hawaii Supreme Court in Baehr v. Lewin acknowledged that there was an equal protection claim under the Hawaii State Constitution, the backlash was fierce. Despite Hawaii being a land of aloha and diversity, there is sometimes reactionary fallout.

The Hawaii State Legislature, in 1997, decided to pass a constitutional amendment to permit the legislature to define marriage as between a man and a woman, which was placed on the 1998 general election ballot. This amendment to the Hawaii State Constitution was approved by Hawaii voters by 69.2% to 28.6%.

As a result, a discriminatory provision now sits in our State Constitution under Article I, Bill of Rights, in Section 23, providing that “[t]he legislature shall have the power to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.”

Our Legislature, which limited marriage in 1994, has not acted since 1998 in accordance with this discriminatory amendment to the Hawaii State Constitution. Instead, in 2013 the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act passed permitting same-sex couples to marry, and then in 2015 with Obergefell v. Hodges same-sex marriage became the law of the land.

However, it is plain wrong that our state constitution has a provision under the Bill of Rights singling out people for discrimination.

Now we can make right past wrongs. On this 2024 general election ballot we have the opportunity to repeal the Legislature’s authority to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

We need to vote yes on the Constitutional Amendment Question No. 1: Removal of Specific Language Concerning the Authority of the Legislature to Reserve Marriage to Opposite-Sex Couples: “Shall the state constitution be amended to repeal the legislature’s authority to reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples?”

We cannot leave this important question blank. A blank vote will make it more difficult to repeal this discriminatory provision when the votes are tallied.

Our LQBTGIA+ neighbors, friends, and ohana are an integral part of our lives. Our lives are the same. We are all people living in Hawaii dreaming the same dream — we wish for a better world and better future. We all wish for a world and future filled with love and happiness.

Thus, we cannot deny anyone equal access to the same privileges that we may enjoy.

It is time to remove the discriminatory provision from the Hawaii State Constitution and vote yes on Constitutional Amendment Question No. 1. Vote yes to make right past wrongs. Vote yes to champion the values of equality and anti-discrimination.