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Pro-family groups out in
force for huge "gay marriage" battle in Hawaii Legislature starting
Monday. Special session called by Governor. Huge energy across the
state to stop it.
The battle
to stop the Hawaii Legislature from imposing "gay marriage"
on that state comes to a head next week. The last two months
have seen a huge, spontaneous pro-family uprising by churches, civic
groups, and individual citizens across the state -- coming out
against this outrage in a way that we've never seen anywhere else in
America.
Above: Hawaii citizens for
traditional marriage outside the State House.
Special session of Legislature convenes
Monday - just for this!
This Monday, October 28, the
Hawaii Legislature goes into a special 5-day (or longer) session
specifically to take up the so-called Hawaii Marriage Equality bill which would impose same-sex "marriage" on that state.
As
we reported last month, the pro-gay marriage governor, Neil
Abercrombie, called the session after a "gay marriage" bill failed
to get any traction during the regular session which ended in May.
And this time, homosexual groups have been focusing like a laser
beam to turn the Legislature around on this and force it through.
Pro-family forces
coming forward on their own in big numbers!
But in
the last two months large numbers of people across the state in
their churches, civic groups and as individuals have spontaneously
mobilized and become active against this in a way that is quite
unprecedented. In fact, the pro-family activism is completely dwarfing the public activity by
the homosexual movement on this issue. For example:
Pro-homosexual rally:
On August 28, the
well-publicized and well-covered MoveOn.org State House rally
supporting "gay marriage" drew only a small crowd, despite being
promoted
nationally:
Pro-family
rally: On October 6, the
United Fellowship of Churches a pro-traditional marriage rally at
the State House that attracted about an enormous overflowing
crowd:
What's
particularly unusual is that in this battle, Hawaii does not have
any central statewide pro-family group coordinating the efforts to
stop the bill. Such efforts usually include statewide fundraising,
strategizing, mobilizing people, etc. At best, there is a loose
confederation of churches and groups that has met occasionally and
mostly serves as an exchange of ideas. That is usually a recipe for
complete disaster in a "gay marriage" battle against the homosexual
juggernaut.
But this time the sheer energy of the pro-family
people seems to be making up for it. There's no question that the
pro-family forces have been having a big impact across the state.
MassResistance materials being used
across Hawaii
MassResistance has been working with
Hawaii activists on this bill since early September. By all acounts,
our material has gone across the state.
| A local Hawaii
group has been publishing the MassResistance booklet on same-sex "marriage" and has distributed 1200
copies. |
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The Hawaii Republican
Assembly created this
flyer from Mass- Resistance materials, referencing our
website.
Nearly 20,000 copies have been
distributed. |
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| MassResistance
materials are also distributed at pro-family coalition
meetings. |
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Divergence of pro-family
strategies
As pointed out above, there are
many groups fighting the bill and no overall coordinating group
running things. As a result there is a divergence of strategies
being used. The strategies being pursued fall into 3 categories:
(1) Opposing the bill directly, i.e., same-sex
"marriage" is immoral, destructive for society, families, and
children, and the bill must be voted down.
(2) Demanding a
vote of the people instead of a legislative vote. This would
seem to be at some variance with the 1998 Constitutional Amendment,
which gives the Legislature the power to define
marriage.
(3) Focusing primarily on strengthening the
religious exemptions, even to the point of including all people
of faith, not just churches.
Whether this divergence of
strategies versus a single stragegy is good or bad, time will tell.
But there's no shortage of energy being expended on all three of
them.
Some of the
highlights of this pro-family battle over the last several weeks
include:
Hawaii Republican Assembly
The
Hawaii Republican Assembly
(HIRA), led by super-activist Tito Montes, is the
most aggressive and fearless group educating people about the
homosexual marriage agenda and how it will affect them and their
children in schools. HIRA has used radio, literature, the Internet,
and organizing tactics to get the word across Hawaii. They have also
been the primary funder for printing and distributing MassResistance
materials across the state. HIRA, like other Republican Assembly
groups across the US, is not officially connected to the GOP. And of
course, they have angered squishy "conservative" legislators with
their direct and uncompromising approach.
HIRA produced a
powerful radio ad that was heard on radio stations
across the state.
Listen to
the ad HERE |
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| In addition to using
MassResistance materials, HIRA produced and distributed other
material letting people know the effects of "gay marriage"
around the country. |
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Tito Montes, the head
of HIRA, was challenged regarding his anti-"gay marriage"
statements by the Governor's office and the liberal media in a
TV interview, and stood up wonderfully.
Watch
the clip HERE. |
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Other pro-family
groups
Although pro-family groups haven't
taken the lead roles as they have in other states, they've
nevertheless been doing important work. For example, the
Hawaii Family Advocates has posted good
information on the bill. On October 11 they organized a State House
press conference, "Let the People Decide" -- calling for a statewide
vote on "gay marriage" instead of legislative fiat where the people
feel their voices are not heard.
Major protestant
churches
Major protestant churches in Hawaii have
stepped up in a huge way. They've done so much we can't list it all.
They've organized rallies and prayer groups, maintained lists of
legislators to call (with their current positions), and educated
people on the issue. Many of them also link to MassResistance
information.
Here are a few examples of what the big
churches have been doing:
The First
Assembly of God church mailed
out this flyer in a local rep's district. Predictably the rep
complained that it contained "half-truths and misinformation
about the proposed same-sex marriage bill."
Politicians are getting increasingly thin-skinned on
this issue when challenged by citizens. |
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| This is the back side
of the flyer above. |
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Big churches have held a number of
public rallies and prayer sessions supporting traditional
marriage.
The Catholic Diocese of
Honolulu
The
Diocese of Honolulu has also stepped up with unequivocal support for
traditional marriage. Back on August 22, Bishop Larry Silva
released this letter to Catholics in Hawaii
that made it very clear where Catholics should stand. He
said:
If same-sex marriage becomes the law of
the land, its implications will go far beyond the relationship of
this or that couple. There will be long term and definitive
changes in our entire culture. If same - sex marriage becomes the
law, it will become “normal” or the norm for our land. If one may
marry without discriminating whether the partner is of the same
sex or the opposite sex, then such “non - discrimination” will
become the norm in other areas, too. Our school textbooks will
have to portray sexual attraction as normal, no matter to whom one
is attracted. When schools have dances, boys will have the choice
of inviting a girl on a date or another boy on a date. Our youth,
whose sexual identity is formed over time, will be forced to
decide prematurely if they are heterosexual or homos exual, thus
curtailing normal sexual maturation, with all its stumblings and
challenges.
On October 13,
Bishop Silva published a second letter on this issue. Along
with that, he included contacts to state representatives and
scriptural references to homosexuality.
In addition,
Catholics in Hawaii have told us that postcards for state reps on
this issue are being distributed on the sidewalks outside of every
Catholic Church in the state on Sundays.
Other churches
Smaller churches across
Hawaii have been doing whatever they can to get the word out and get
people energized on this issue. It's really refreshing to
see.
| Many churches across
Hawaii organized standouts like this. |
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Mormons
largely on the sidelines. The Mormon churches have not been involved
at all, which is a big change from the past when the Mormons were at
the forefront of these issues. Instead, they've instructed their members that they can act on
their own, either for or against the bill, but they should support
strong religious exemptions. In the 1990s, the Mormon churches in
Hawaii were a primary force that propelled the pro-family side to
victory in homosexual civil union statewide
battles.
Other pro-family help
from outside of Hawaii
Phil Lees, a
well-known educator from Canada, came to Hawaii and spent much of
October speaking at churches and other venues across Hawaii, warning
people about how same-sex "marriage" has affected the educational
system in Canada. What he's said is pretty chilling, even to
us!
Late last
week it the National Organization for Marriage (NOM)
announced that it would be funding television ads throughout Hawaii.
According to news reports, the ads will be focused on persuading the
Legislature to let the people vote, rather than have the Legislature
decide on same-sex "marriage".
Renowned University of Texas
researcher Mark
Regnerus is also coming to Hawaii next
week to help with the effort, according to activists we've spoken
with. His recent study on the detremental
effects of same-sex "parenting" on children has received worldwide
attention.
The opposition: big money,
mainstream media, and Hollywood
According to news
reports, the homosexual lobby has spent over $125,000 to persuade
and pressure Hawaii's state legislators. According to news
reports, all of it has come from national homosexual groups and
wealthy homosexual individuals outside the state. Hollywood
celebrities have also been lining up to promote a "yes"
vote.
And the mainstream media, both TV and
newspapers, have published a steady stream of biased articles and
feature stories portraying this as inevitable, and a positive thing
for society. For examplle, this posting of a female athlete "marrying" her
partner is what the public is now
seeing a lot.
Huge pro-family State
House rally on Monday to greet lawmakers!
Ever
since the Governor announced the special session, one thing the
pro-family movement has agreed on completely is plans for a huge
pro-family rally at the State House on the afternoon of the
session's first day.
Also on Monday, the first of two
public hearings is likely. There will be one each for the House
and Senate. These are sure to attract an enormous pro-family
turnout!
Although it's a special session for only one bill,
citizens are being told it will be treated like other bills.
According to the Governor's website, during a special
session all constitutional and legal requirements that govern the
Legislature must still be met. The House and Senate internal rules
are also the same, both of which require a public hearing before any
bill is passed. Thus there will be two public hearings, two
committee votes, and two floor votes in order for the bill to get
through.
So beside the public hearings, look for a flood of
people to the State House for rallies, lobbying, committee votes,
etc. If it's anything like the special "gay marriage" Constitutional
Convention was in Massachusetts in 2007, it will be a zoo. We won't
be surprised if the legislators decide to start bending the rules
after a day or two to short-cut the system.
BELOW:
Organizations across Hawaii are promoting the big October 28 State
House rally:
What will happen next week? Will we
win?
This
bill started out at the beginning of this year it wasn't taken very
seriously. But now it's in big danger of passing.
Back in
February during the regular session, the bill had such weak support
that the Governor gave up, and decided to try again in a special
session several months later. That was a shrewd tactic. Since then,
while our side has been doing its activism, the homosexual movement
has spent over $125,000 to apply the kind of hard, high-pressure
lobbying that it has honed across the country since the
Massachusetts days ten years ago.
And that seems to have
worked quite well. Right now, the bill will likely pass easily in
the Senate and by a small margin in the House, where the real battle
is taking place. Insider information we have is that right now,
leading into this tumultuous week, we're still about 3-4 votes
behind, but apparently gaining ground.
As politics go,
we can still win through the sheer force of numbers of angry
people. But our side still has no money and no well-organized,
systematic, central lobbying effort. That must be overcome by sheer
energy.
National Organization of Marriage (NOM), which
has just gotten involved, is the only national pro-marriage group
that has money to spend on these fights. Unlike the Left, the rest
of the conservative establishment is cowardly and/or has retreated
from this battle.
It's nice that NOM is now stepping in,
during the last week, to buy television ads. But if they had come in
two months ago and instead funded a hardcore lobbying effort with
that same money, that would have been much wiser. Unfortunately, NOM
is much more comfortable fighting media wars instead of the
inside-baseball lobbying wars.
Right now, our strength is
in numbers of dedicated people. Look for a huge turnout in both
public hearings. We wouldn't be surprised if hundreds of pro-family
people show up at each one, determined to stay all night if
necessary, in addition to flooding the halls and offices of the
State House.
Thus, although a rally and public hearing
turnout usually isn't enough, we think that if our side can
generate enormous pressure on the House members supporting this,
letting them know that they will all face primary challengers backed
by determined groups of people, this can be stopped. We've
seen it happen before (e.g., in Maryland in 2011).
We'll keep
you informed!
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Unlike in many other
states, Hawaiian Christians are generally not afraid of the
political correctness of the
Left. |
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