Hawaii’s High Court Rules Gay Marriage Issue Closed

HONOLULU — Hawaii’s Supreme Court has slammed the door on gay marriages in the state once considered most likely to legalize same-sex unions.

Hawaii was one of two states where gay rights advocates had hoped to establish same-sex marriage as a right under the state constitution. The issue remains open in Vermont, where the state Supreme Court is expected to rule in a case filed by three gay couples.

Hawaii’s high court ruled late Thursday that the issue there had been resolved by a 1998 amendment to the state Constitution barring gay marriages.

Opponents of gay marriage cheered the ruling, a loss for three gay couples who had sought the right to marry there.

“Thank you to the Hawaii Supreme Court for affirming what we’ve known all along--that marriage, by God’s definition, is between opposite-sex couples,” said Mike Gabbard, chairman of the Alliance for Traditional Marriage.

Advocates of same-sex marriage said the issue will not go away.

“This is still a national civil rights movement, and no one victory and no one defeat is going to end our advance on equality,” said Evan Wolfson, an attorney for the national Lambda Legal Defense Fund, which advocates gay rights.

In 1996, Hawaii’s Supreme Court ruled that unless the state Legislature acted on the matter, the state Constitution would require recognition of gay marriages. The ruling set off preemptive action by legislatures around the nation.

Hawaii lawmakers then drafted a constitutional amendment, which voters approved, 2 to 1, to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples.

California voters will act in March on a measure to restrict marriage to a man and a woman.