Comments on: Hawaii committee deadlocked on civil union bill

By: Equality Hawaii

Equality Hawaii — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:32:57 +0000

There are some great comments to this story. I wish the rest of Hawaii felt the same way. Ignorant leaders and certain religious groups have pushed hard to scare the public into thinking this bill is something that it’s not. I hope everyone here in Hawaii and our legislators can see past the bigoted rhetoric and see HB444 for what it really is, a step to address unequal treatment.

By: SteveMD2

SteveMD2 — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:48:37 +0000

FYI here is the letter I sent to all the people in the HI Senate, as given in Michael Golujack’s letter.

All I had to do with outlook express was copy past all the email names into the BCC field, separated by semi-colons. I hope you will do the same.

Dear Senator:
I am writing to you as a regular visitor to HI, since a have a large number of cousins living there. It is time to begin to end the injustice perpetrated against gay people in America, all based on the total corruption of the meaning of God, and how we are All made in his image.

Those who condemn gay people do so while so conveniently ignoring the other condemnations found in the bible. Women not a virgin on their wedding day are to be stoned to death. Working on the sabbath means death, Eating swine means death, etc etc. Just a few examples of how superstitions and stone age ignorance are ignored, while selectively keeping the condemnation of our LGBT people. Just as slavery was justified as per the bible, a notion I hope has finally been ended by the election of A black President. A final fitting end to America’s greatest crime.

And as it has been proven in MA and CT, voting for gay marriage did not cost a single legislator who supported this basic set of rights his seat in the past elections of 04, 06, and 08. Furthermore, while many good people have a problem with “marriage”, seeing it as a religious term while it also, separately covers a legal contract totally separate except in name from religion, they support civil unions instead. Even a majority of Catholics support civil unions, despite their churches ardent opposition. Hardly at all different then the 94% of Catholics who use artificial birth control in spite of the church’s teachings.

You have the power to make America true to its ideals of equal justice for all, and not being a theocracy, which in extreme forms bred us another day that will live in Infamy, 9/11

By: Jason21Tx

Jason21Tx — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 07:25:22 +0000

“It’s about us becoming active in mainstream politics.”

If anything pisses me off more then the kristian taliban, it is the failure of the gay community, men and women, to find their ‘balls’, get organized, and start to learn about politics. In particular, my friend in baltimore says that while some of the progressive counties have many active gay people involved in politics, in Baltimore city, very few are.

This is our own personal shame. I’m amazed at what I have learned, and how much fun I have had in the process. This includes directly supporting and influenceing the election of a moderate democrat, vs a right wing, totally greedy religious nut case to the US House.

And my failure to get active on one of the key asshole christians in the MD Assembly resulted in his getting re-elected in 2006 by a lousy 28 votes. The guy is secretly gay, and is the jerk leader of the religious right in the state govt. I personally could have easily changed 50 or a hundred votes, and sent him packing.

So I have learned so much. I hope I’ve inspired you to get involved also. Bitching doesn’t get you anywhere – ask my wife (hehe)

By: Gerry Fisher

Gerry Fisher — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:46:27 +0000

…and notice the difference between “why won’t those legislators do what they did in MA?” and “why won’t the gay folk in HI organize in the same way we did in MA?”

It’s about us becoming active in mainstream politics. When we lead, our leaders follow. And nothing makes them want to follow us more than our money or fear of our proven wrath. We have to become a mainstream political power….

This isn’t as hard as it sounds, because there are soooo few ordinary citizens involved in Democratic organizing and politicking. If you can get 10% of the community out and involved in mainstream political circles, you’ll dominate local politics. There’s a real vaccum there…fill it.

By: Gerry Fisher

Gerry Fisher — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 13:42:42 +0000

>Rick, Hawaii’s politicians are afraid to look at the Massachusetts example. Many were elected by small majorities and they realize that the “will of the majority” or I should say the “stupidity of the masses” is easily influenced by well funded, anti-gay BS. Bottom line, the politicians are more interested in getting re-elected than doing the right thing.

For this reason, gay people have to become a political force in local democratic circles. When it became clear to legislators that gay money and volunteerism was leading to the consistent reelection of marriage supporters and the consistent defeat of marriage opponents, we turned the corner here in MA.

We’re too small a population to win a popular vote. But, with our time, money, passion, and creativity, we can be a *huge* local political force that local politicians don’t want to mess with. Just goes to show ya what some disposable income and “caring” can generate.

By: c.m.

c.m. — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:40:13 +0000

none of this surprises me. i wish i could say otherwise.have any of you here checked out the skeptic annotated bible online?if you take a closer look at all the bible’s factual errors it could change the way you view the book that has ruined so many of our lives.i’m sure you can use some of the stuff on there to irritate those bible bigots the next time they get in your face.some of it will amaze & even shock you. i don’t look at any bible in the same way i did before i got on that site.peace to all.

By: Morgan

Morgan — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:33:26 +0000

No Hawaii for me,just yet.

By: G - Toronto

G - Toronto — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:27:21 +0000

Hey, don’t forget we have it here in Canada too. And now we have a conservative Prime Minister and the majority of parliament are conservative as well. Guess what? It hasn’t come up to take it away and when the very mention of having it appear in a nationwide referendum came up (suggested by who else, religious right up here), a nation wide poll showed that the majority of Canadians would be royally pissed off their tax dollars were being spent to bring us all out to vote. No one really cares. Hawaii just do it, if they don’t like that people get equal rights, then they should move.

By: Michael Golojuch Jr.

Michael Golojuch Jr. — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:42:11 +0000

So the battle goes on and now we need all the support we can get from across America in contacting ALL of the Senators to support pulling the bill from committee. We know we have the votes but any and all support that we can get to let the Senators know they have support and should not waver in their support of this bill and in doing so support equality and justice.

Mahalo,

Michael G.

Below is their contact information:

Senator:

1. Baker, Rosalyn H. (D) senbaker@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6070
**2. Bunda, Robert (D) senbunda@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6090
3. Chun Oakland, Suzanne (D) senchunoakland@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6130
4. English, J. Kalani (D) senenglish@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-587-7225
5. Espero, Will (D) senespero@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6360
6. Fukunaga, Carol (D) senfukunaga@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6890
**7. Gabbard, Mike (D) sengabbard@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6830
8. Galuteria, Brickwood (D) sengaluteria@capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6740
9. Green, Josh (D) sengreen@capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-9385
10. Hanabusa, Colleen (D) senhanabusa@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-7793
11. Hee, Clayton (D) senhee@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-7330
+ 12. Hemmings, Fred (R) senhemmings@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-587-8388
13. Hooser, Gary L. (D) senhooser@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6030
14. Ige, David Y. (D) sendige@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6230
15. Ihara, Les (D) senihara@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6250
16. Kidani, Michelle (D) senkidani@capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-7100
17. Kim, Donna Mercado (D) senkim@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-587-7200
18. Kokubun, Russell S. (D) senkokubun@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6760
* 19. Nishihara, Clarence K. (D) sennishihara@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6970
+ 20. Sakamoto, Norman (D) sensakamoto@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-8585
**21. Slom, Sam (R) senslom@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-8420
* 22. Takamine, Dwight Y. (D) sentakamine@capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-7335
* 23. Taniguchi, Brian T. (D) sentaniguchi@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-6460
24. Tokuda, Jill N. (D) sentokuda@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-587-7215
25. Tsutsui, Shan S. (D) sentsutsui@Capitol.hawaii.gov – 808-586-7344

* Means they voted FOR HB 444
** Means they voted against HB 444
+ Has never supported the GLBT community

I have put all email addresses together here below.
For your convenience, you can simply copy them all together and paste to your message:

senbaker@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senbunda@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senchunoakland@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senenglish@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senespero@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senfukunaga@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sengabbard@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sengaluteria@capitol.hawaii.gov;sengreen@capitol.hawaii.gov;senhanabusa@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senhee@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senhemmings@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senhooser@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sendige@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senihara@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senkidani@capitol.hawaii.gov;senkim@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senkokubun@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sennishihara@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sensakamoto@Capitol.hawaii.gov;senslom@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sentakamine@capitol.hawaii.gov;sentaniguchi@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sentokuda@Capitol.hawaii.gov;sentsutsui@Capitol.hawaii.gov