Posted on: Monday, August 18, 2003

Marriage amendment support sought

By Sara Lin
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Alliance for Traditional Marriage and Values, led by City Councilman Mike Gabbard, has launched a campaign to garner support for the Federal Marriage Amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.

The Alliance is collecting signatures for a statewide petition, hoping to show Hawai'i's congressional delegation where Hawai'i ought to stand on the issue.

In 1998, Hawai'i voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing the Legislature to define marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

A Massachusetts court is expected to rule this year on whether same-sex couples have the right to wed under the state constitution. Advocates on both sides are predicting that the Massachusetts court could become the first in the nation to legalize gay marriage.

"We thought we won the war, but I always knew in the back of my mind that they were looking for other states," said Gabbard. "They found that in Massachusetts."

"Seventy percent of people in Hawai'i voted yes on that constitutional amendment in 1998," he said. "If we could get a couple hundred thousand people to sign that would be wonderful."