Equality Hawaii
by Don Bentz, Equality Hawaii Executive Director 2007-2017:
Equality Hawaii was a family of three distinct yet interlocked organizations that advocated for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) rights, including same-sex marriage, in the state of Hawaii from 2007 to 2017.
After a civil union bill did not advance in February 2007, lead advocates led by Jo-Ann Adams, a Honolulu attorney, were told by elected officials that relationship recognition for same-sex couples would not succeed without a broader coalition. After gathering input from experienced lobbyists, a broad, non-partisan net was cast, yielding more than 20 attendees at the first organizational meeting in September of 2007.
This initial band of pioneers, representing various organizations and individuals, agreed that to realize their vision, more effective lobbying, grassroots activation and concerted statewide community outreach was needed. Family Equality Coalition, a 501(c)(4), was founded Nov. 16, 2007.
The first organizational meeting was hosted by Unity Church Sept. 14, 2009, in a partnership with UNITE HERE! Local 5 featuring Cleve Joes, the former aide to Harvey Milk and AIDS Memorial Quilt founder.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, January 11, 2009
After consulting with Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry, Human Rights Campaign, Equality Federation and key legislators, the team elected the prudent path towards full marriage equality was to start with civil unions.
A civil unions bill, HB444, was introduced in the Hawaii House of Representatives Jan. 26, 2009, and rocketed through the House Judiciary Committee Feb. 5, 2009, by a 12-1 vote, and later the full House by a 33-17 vote.
After crossing over to the Senate Feb. 13, 2009, it stalled in the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Government Operations (JGO). A Senator resigned from the committee before session started, leaving the committee with six members, for a 3-3 deadlock, neither passed nor defeated, after an 18-hour public hearing.
Senate President Colleen Hanabusa and JGO Chair Brian Taniguchi both opposed a “pull” where a bill bypasses committee and goes directly to the floor on grounds that the process violated Senate procedure and protocol in which Senators respect the actions of committees. Speculation was that Sen. Hanabusa, whose district was conservative Waianae, along with Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, a staunch anti-equality legislator, did not want the bill to advance.
Both sides produced public displays, a mega-rally against HB444 by the Hawaii Family Forum Feb. 22, 2009, and a moving candlelight vigil by supporters March 7, 2009.
Honolulu Advertiser, February 24, 2009
The initial civil unions campaign gave Equality Hawaii the inspiration to grow and leverage its advocacy database, flooding legislators with thousands of appeals and testimonies throughout various hearings and floor votes.
For details on the rest of the 2009 and 2010 session, visit the Wikipedia entry on Hawaii House Bill 444 and former Sen. Gary Hooser’s blog article: Politics, Policy, Pride - The Saga of HB444.
During Sen. Hooser’s initial pull and Sen. Ihara’s second attempt on the last day of session, many legislators reported threats from Senate leadership that, if they supported Hooser’s pull, their bills would not advance. On the final days of session, as bills “decked” and were cleared, Senators were free to support Sen. Ihara’s final day motion to pull. A last-minute amendment disguised as “friendly” delayed the bill to the next legislative session.
The bill eventually passed both chambers in 2010 after many histrionics in the House, but was vetoed by Gov. Linda Lingle July 6, 2010. This launched the 2010 election cycle with civil unions as a key issue, especially in the gubernatorial race between Rep. Neil Abercrombie and former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann in the primary and Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona in the general election.
Honolulu Advertiser, July 11, 2010
In 2010, Family Equality Coalition’s board elected to change its name to Equality Hawaii to better represent its mission to the community. By this time, what was once a concept was now the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization with nearly 15,000 members and numerous accolades.
After Abercrombie’s victory, a new civil unions bill (SB323) sailed through both chambers - see Civil Unions, Then and Now in the Honolulu Civil Beat - for some key differences in the hearings). The final Senate hearing was highlighted by the confirmation of Justice Sabrina McKenna to the Hawaii Supreme Court with her partner and children in attendance. The bill was signed at Washington Place, the governor’s ceremonial mansion, Feb. 24, 2011 … his first act as governor.
Throughout the civil unions process, Rep. Blake Oshiro was a crucial voice and advocate, making impassioned pleas during House caucus and securing fellow House members’ votes. Key lobbyists spending countless hours with legislators included Alan Spector, Valerie Smith and Tambry Young, who all served as EH co-chairs at various points, and Tony Wagner, Human Rights Campaign’s Western Field Director.
Other issues EH provided testimony and awareness around included bills addressing transgender inclusion in employment laws and gender markers, school bullying and emergency room contraception for sexual assault survivors.
The formula for Equality Hawaii was to utilize the three unique tools offered by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for non-profit organizations. Use the (c)(3) – a traditional non-profit – to change the hearts and minds of the people; the (c)(4) to change the hearts and minds of legislators; and the 527 (PAC) to change (or retain) legislators.
The need to conduct public education through educational projects funded by charitable donations and grants led to the birth of the Family Equality Foundation, then Equality Hawaii Foundation, Oct. 27, 2010.
While its 501(c)(3) application was on file with the IRS, EHF was fiscally sponsored by Equality Federation Institute, a national alliance of state-based LGBT advocacy organizations so that Hawaii could immediately pursue grant funding. The Foundation received its official designation from the IRS July 5, 2011.
EHF’s biggest achievement was educational programming that created understanding toward why marriage matters and civil unions. The organization produced numerous educational forums and programs to educate the community at large on LGBT people and the issues affecting them. EHF programs and actions remained true to the organization’s core philosophy that the only way to change hearts and minds is to create opportunities for open discussion.
One of EHF’s first projects was Hawaii Family Portraits, an award-winning exhibit that traveled the state that shared the stories of LGBT families in Hawaii. The project was anchored on four pillars - LGBT parents, parents of LGBT people, LGBT couples and extended ‘ohana – with more than 20 moving stories photographed by photographer Michael Ang.
The project boasted more than 40 showings in diverse venues such as the Capitol, Leeward Community College, Chaminade University, Honolulu Design Center, Kauai’i Community College and Shabu Shabu Bangkok attended by Star Trek’s George Takei.
The project was viewed by more than 100,000 people and evolved into a multi-media powerhouse, utilizing social media teasers and YouTube video shorts that linked to full stories on its web site. The videos were produced by Nathan Leo with music donated by Makana. The web site and full stories were crafted by Donald Bentz.
Other educational projects included:
The fiscal agent and partner with DaMoms and Hawaii Department of Health on the Creating a Safety Net for LGBT Youth focusing on creating positive outcomes and nurturing programs by non-profits and state agencies. The day-long conference was attended by nearly 300 people, kicked off with a video welcome by Gov. Abercrombie and a visit by Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz.
A Native Hawaiian talk story facilitated by EHF board member Brad Lum at the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaii Studies.
Equally Speaking, a weekly hour-long talk show on O’lelo covering the people, places and things affecting Hawaii’s LGBT community. The show featured community organizations, programs, issues and leaders. Originally hosted by Bentz, others hosts included EHF board members Gigi Lee, Matthew Bellhouse-King and Joshua Frost. The show was produced by Nathan Leo.
The success of these educational programs was evidenced by public opinion polling conducted by QMark Research, a leading Hawaii research opinion firm. Data collected at the beginning of the first civil union campaign and then again at the beginning of Hawaii’s marriage campaign in 2012, reflecting a nearly 30-point shift in favor of marriage equality and relationship recognition for same-sex couples.
Another QMark poll facilitated by EHF in May 2014 identified that bullying was a major issue in Hawaii schools with 57 percent responding that they had been impacted by bullying.
Bullying Awareness Project PSAs with Allegra Performing Arts.
Three Equality Galas, fundraisers for EHF with event logistics and style from Gay Jennigs.
o The first in 2012 at the Kathy Ireland Estate honoring community icon Jack Law, Rep. Cynthia Thielen (the Republican that weathered challenged to her posts for supporting civil unions) and Sen. Clayton Hee (who anchored the bill in the Senate).
o Sept. 21, 2013, lit up Aloha Tower in rainbows and aerial acrobatics by Noe Hawaii Ensemble in a James Bond-inspired Shaken, Not Stirred theme. Highlights, captured in this video, included Glee star Matthew Morrison and honoree Jackie Young (an original leader when marriage equality started in the 1990s), Dr. David McEwan, ACLU of Hawaii, Human Rights Campaign and the Hon. Steven Levinson (author of the Beahr v Lewin case).
o Bows & Bow Ties was the theme for the Gala Nov. 22, 2014, at Dole Cannery Pomaika’i Ballroom. Celebrating the one-year anniversary of marriage equality, EHF present Gov. Abercrombie with the Justice Steven Levinson Trailblazer Award.
Earned media efforts by EHF and EH resulted in more than 20 front-page placements of civil unions and then marriage throughout the state in four brief years.
Membership PSAs featuring community members produced by Nathan Leo.
The third ingredient in EH’s formula was the Equality Hawaii Action Fund, started after the first civil unions bills defeat and importance of electing pro-equality legislators and Rep. Abercrombie as governor became critical.
Founded Aug. 13, 2010, EHAF produced gathered candidates’ positions on LGBT issues to protect supportive lawmakers and replace those who opposed equality. Some savory wins included:
Rep. Blake Oshiro trouncing fanatic anti-civil unions leader Gary Okino for Oshiro’s House seat in 2010.
Abercrombie’s victory over Hannemann and then Aiona in 2010 for governor.
Gubernatorial candidate Rep. David Ige’s win over Aiona (again) in 2014.
Also in 2014:
Equality foes Rep. Richard Fale, Rida Cabanilla (primary) and Rev. Bryant Jeremiah’s losses to, respectively, Sen. Gil Riviere and Rep. Matt Lopresti.
Equality champions Rep. Chris Lee and Takashi Ono, who were rumored to be vulnerable, crushing their opponents, as did Reps. Della Au Belatti, Kaniela Ing (by a Maui record-setting 56+ points), Michelle Kidani, Jill Tokuda and Roz Baker.
And Rep. Thielen, who faced attempts to remove her from her committee posts by fellow Republicans, trounced apostolic minister in the GOP primary.
In 2012, when preparing EHAF’s endorsements, that EHAF co-chair Jacce Mikulanic and EH Executive Director Bentz realized, when tabulating candidates’ responses to the marriage equality question, that “oh, my. You realize we have the votes for marriage?” and discussions opened as it appeared time to advance from civil unions to marriage.
Equality Hawaii was a founding member and fiscal agent of Hawaii United for Marriage, a coalition of organizations that advocated for the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act, which was signed into law on November 13, 2013, by Gov. Abercrombie, and same-sex couples began marrying on December 2, 2013.
After marriage’s passage, in 2016, EHF formed a strategic alliance to share networks and resources with the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation, an organization dedicated to unifying, facilitating and empowering Hawaii's LGBTQ community. Equality Hawaii ceased operations in January 2017. Jacce Mikulanec and David Brustein wrote about the passing of the torch in this blog essay: Mahalo and Aloha.
Those serving in board roles for one or more of the three organizations included Raymond Algejo, Shayna Alexander, Kimberly Allen, Ria Balavia, Matthew Bellhouse-King, Donald Bentz, Brad Bogart, Holly Broman, Noelle Campbell, Danny Castro, Janel Dulan, Jeff Esmond, Elizabeth Foster Heckman, Joshua Frost, Miguel Galvez, Renea Gavrilov Stewart, Nova Lei Gonzalrez, Kyle Gouveia, Paul Gracie, Renae Hamilton, Rob Hatch, Gladys Hayes, Kahana Ho, Elijah Jacobsen, Suzanne King, Travis Knott, Steven Lam-Wagoner, Scott Larimer, Gigi Lee, The Hon. Steven Levinson, Bradford Kaiwi Lum, Scott MacGowan, Brittani Mah, Cliff McCluney, Jeff Merz, Jacce Mikulanec, Gary Okabayashi, Jeffrey Piela, Ken Plonsky, Tom Ramsey, Kory Rosette, Stacy Salas, Shannon Sheets, Todd Simmons, Valerie Smith, Alan Spector, Sam Tanigawa, Grant Teichman, Matthew Ulagalelai and Tambry Young.
Bentz (7/2010-9/2014), Simmons (9/2014-2/2015) and Andrea Anderson (2/2015-2016) served as executive director roles. Consultants and/or contractors included Nathan Leo, Gay Jennings, Krys Zyak, William Kaneko, Bob Toyofuku, Dawn Marais Webster and Michael Ang.
Rally at the State Capitol for HB444 in April 2010.
Banner image by Equality Hawaii.