Hawaii House Passes Bill To Legalize Gay Marriage
The bill was approved by the House of Representatives on Friday night and will proceed to go back to the Senate who need to take another look and consider any amendments to add.
The Senate originally passed the same bill last month with a vote of 20 to 4. According to the Los Angeles Times, “The House vote culminated an extraordinary committee hearing in which 5,000 people signed up to testify on the bill.”
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The debate on Friday centered on exemptions for churches and religious organizations that refuse to be involved with any form of the bill and whether they should be given any written acknowledgements.
At the time of this writing, Hawaii and Illinois are the most recent states to attempt legalizing same-sex marriage, on their way to joining 14 other states (and the District of Colombia) that already allow similar laws.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie has also said that he would sign the bill. Hawaii currently allows civil union for same-sex couples.
Read the full story here.
Reach Executive Producer Eric Parra here.