(From the Kapi'o)

Imagine you spent your life with someone. Loved them, cared for them and lived for them, then your significant other passed on without a will.

If you were a married couple or registered as the limited legal contract of a Reciprocal Beneficiary Relationship you may inherit whatever assets were left behind without a will.

However, if you were in a same-sex partnership you would be left with nothing.

The Civil Unions Bill is a work-around for gay-marriage. Instead of allowing same-sex couples to be married the bill is designed to allow a union, including the benefits of being a married couple.

This is just one of the many issues that face the gay community aside from out-right disrespect to them as people and the blatant attempts to banish them from society by religious groups.

To circumvent the no marriage issue the Civil Unions Bill was brought before the State of Hawaii Congress and passed the House of Representatives by a 33-17 vote, but failed to get through the Senate on March 25 receiving 8 of 25 votes, one short of passing the bill.

Again, those who represent the public have failed to do the right thing and have done what they feel is the easy thing. It’s easy to hate, to dislike and disagree. It’s hard to have a progressive mind and give someone something that many feel is unnecessary.

However, society cannot continue to take liberties with civil rights and push citizens away from being part of the community. At some point people need to realize that we are all people and that everyone, no matter what race, creed or religion, must have the same rights. It’s not our job to be judgmental and it is definitely not our job to take rights away from individuals.

Disagreeing is fine.

If one person believes that gay-marriage is a bad thing, fine, if you believe being gay is a lifestyle choice, fine. But, no one gets to say that one faction of our populace can have this set of rights and another cannot. Gay people should be awarded the same rights that everyone else has, simple as that. They are a part of our society and deserve the respect of all citizens. You don’t have to agree with them but you do have to respect them as people and as citizens of this state and country.

History will judge us.

At one point in time there were black only water fountains and interracial marriage was something that was considered deeply taboo.

Now, as a society we look back on those dark times of our history and wonder how something like that could even happen. We judge that part of our history as a failure and have worked hard to eradicate a way of life that was commonplace.
Now, we live in a time where the country is falling behind the rest of the world and where we cannot grant a simple thing like allowing two people to join together in a relationship and have it be sanctioned by the government.

Future generations will most definitely look at this point in history. They will wonder why it was so easy for a part of our society to openly hate another. Hate, is a strong word but, that is what it is. You have to hate someone to say that they cannot have what every one else has.

Our representative government must use bravery in the face of hate. And as a society we must stand up to that hate. When civil rights are taken away it lessons us all as a people and a society.

The bus is leaving and everyone has to get on.

The view we take is written by the editors of the Kapi‘o. We welcome all responses to this subject. E-mail “Letter to the Editor” at kapio@hawaii.edu.