From atropos@aol.net  Fri Apr 22 11:00:24 1994
Subject:      HAWAII CONFERENCE COMMITTEE

                        HAWAII, APRIL 21

        I apologize to everyone for inadvertently mailing the mailing
list!!!!  Here's the intended message.

[ Ed. Note: the list didn't make it through to GLB-News, I caught it and
            deleted the article. ]

        A conference committee has been appointed to reconcile
differences between the House and Senate versions of HB2312.  The
House version passed the House 34-17, and the Senate version passed
the Senate 21-4.  The House version defines marriage as between a
man and a woman and has a long preamble (with no force of law) stating
that the biological possibility of having children is the primary
purpose of state licensing of marriage.  The Senate version also
defines marriage as between a man and a woman; it drops the effort to
offer compelling state interests and instead does two things:  it
argues that marriage policy is the prerogative of the legislature and
not the courts, and it calls for study commission on sexual orientation
and the law.  The Senate specifies that the study commission will have
two Catholics, two Mormons, etc., and (despite naming those two religions)
is stacked in favor of civil rights for gay men and lesbians.

        The conference committee has Graulty, Iwase, Ros Baker, Ann
Kobayashi and Stan Koki from the Senate.  Baker and Kobayashi, by changin
their votes within the Senate Judiciary Committee to favor HB2312
in the Senate's version, became eligible for the conference committee
and did get a place on it.  Our most steadfast friends, Matt Matsunaga
and Andy Levin, who refused to vote for such nonsense as HB2312, made
themselves ineligible for the conference committee by Senate rules.
So, Ann and Ros DID get something for their pains.  Tony Chang may join
the conference committee (he may request it today; he switched his vote
in favor of HB2312 on the Senate floor but not in committee).  IF GRAULTY
KEEPS HIS PROMISES TO BAKER AND KOBAYASHI TO NOT CHANGE THE SENATE VERSION,
there will be 3 votes to block any changes from the Senate side.  That's
enough.  Kobayashi made Graulty's promise public for that reason:  the
entire Capitol is watching to see whether he betrays Kobayashi and Baker.

        The House members on the conference committee are Terrance Tom
(original author of HB2312), Romy Cachola (he has a publicly gay first
cousin who talks politics with hime and Romy knows the issues, but has
said in the past that there aren't enough gay votes for him to go to
much trouble---he hasn't voted for us in years), Ron Menor (another
homophobe, and Vice-Chair of the House Judiciary Committee---it's Ron
who gives me pause whenever someone suggests that we work to defeat
Terrance Tom; Ron is much worse than Terrance Tom), Paula Ishii-Morikami
(she has the canoe district, part of Kauai and Maui) and Larry Tanimoto
(Republican, relatively unknown).  Don't expect the House members to
be friendly.

        The committee must finish its work during the month of April.