EDITORIAL
Gay marriage: battles lost, a war to be won

Inevitably, we think, that portfolio of prerogatives known as gay rights will prevail — perhaps in a form not yet entirely recognizable, and surely only after a long, bitter struggle.

Another, parallel war, the one against racial intolerance, is much closer to victory. The gay rights struggle is no less a war against intolerance, against a mindset that condemns people for a sexual orientation that is no more voluntary than the color of their skin.

Thus the ongoing conflicts over gay marriage, in Massachusetts, San Francisco and the Hawai'i Legislature, are battles — some won, some lost — in a great war.

The struggle in Massachusetts, much like one a decade earlier in Hawai'i, began with a forward-thinking court ruling that may have been socially premature, leading as it has here to ugly backlash.

Hawai'i's otherwise proudly progressive Constitution was shamefully scarred in 1998 with a discriminatory, intolerant clause sold as a defense of marriage, but in practice stripping what some day will be recognized as inalienable rights.

We're somewhat ambivalent about the initiative in the Hawai'i House of Representatives to establish civil unions in lieu of gay marriages. This would recognize rights that should exist for any committed relationship, but it would consign gay relationships ultimately to a second-class status.

Yet we're inclined to think that civil unions are far better than nothing, for now; and we encourage Hawai'i lawmakers to lead the way.

We're aware that a substantial majority of citizens, here and nationally, are sincerely opposed to marriage for gays and lesbians. This is why the Founders gave us representative democracy with checks and balances. The difference between right and wrong is not defined by the number of "aye" votes.

It is profoundly to be hoped that the world's most inspiring political document, the U.S. Constitution, will remain resistant to these forces of reaction.

We eventually will see the end to state obstruction to gay marriage in this country, simply because that's what's right. We must strive to be patient with those who are unable to tolerate differences in others, even as we persist doggedly in the pursuit of that which is right.