Aloha to all interested in the updates of the Hawaii Same Sex Marriage bill. The information and steps have been outlined below by the LGBT Caucus Steering Committee.
As of November 5th we were in the 3rd reading of the bill and vote – this is the vote that really counts. We need 26 votes to keep moving. If the bill is not amended, this will be the final vote!
IF THE BILL IS AMENDED (and people seem to think it will be amended):
6) The amended bill is sent back to the senate
7) Senator Hee can agree to the amendments
- a) If Senator Hee agrees to the amendments, there will be a final floor vote in the Senate to pass the amended bill; this will be the final vote.
- b) if Senator Hee does not agree to the amendments,
- There will be Conference Committee to resolve the differences between the bills; (the Conference Committee will have a few members from each house); this will result in one compromised version of the bill.
- House and Senate each vote on the bill emerging from the conference committee.
The bill passes after both houses vote to pass the bill, so the final vote will be the vote on the floor by the second body (it could be the House or the Senate).
There are specified time frames between each of these steps; however, there are also ways to shorten the amount of time between the steps. That is why it is difficult to predict when the next step will happen.
The buzz is that all these steps will be completed this week! Soon we will be the next state to pass Same Sex Marriage. Yippeee! Lesbian and Gay weddings in Hawaii!
LGBT Caucus Steering Committee
