Last year 33 of the 51 house members of the Hawaiian House of Representatives voted in favour of a bill that would create same-sex civil unions in the state. However, on Friday last week, the House leadership postponed the bill indefinitely after a large campaign by many conservative Christian groups to have the proposed law stopped. The bill would have granted homosexual partners all the legal benefits of marriage, except the name itself, and would have made Hawaii the sixth state with a similar law. As many of you would know, Civil Unions were successfully made into law in 2004 here in Niu Sila/New Zealand - something I supported back then, and still support now. Six years on, the world hasn’t ended, the sky hasn’t fallen through, and any moral decay already existing in society hasn’t increased since many New Zealanders have taken on Civil Unions. In fact, life has gone on as normal. [ad#alamaipostsquare]I think the Hawaiian legislature, and the conservative Christians who opposed the bill, are wrong. Firstly, Civil Unions are not marriages, although I wouldn’t have a problem with marriage for same-sex couples either. So on one hand, the ‘institution’ of marriage is protected if same-sex couples can only have Civil Unions. However, on the other hand, why should the State deny same-sex couples the right to be married? Anything less, even by name, seems discriminatory. I know many of our people are quite conservative when it comes to this topic, and would retort that marriage is between a man and a woman, made before God - “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.” But such an argument leads me to my second point. The separation of Church and State. The State should not have a preference of religion. Secular States cannot be biased to one religion especially in an increasingly diverse population. Therefore we can’t or shouldn’t use our own personal morals and impose it on everyone else. And thirdly, as I mentioned above, same-sex couples being married doesn’t hurt anyone, unless you have your own prejudices or bigoted views. If Aunties Tom and Dom from down the road decided to get married/have a Civil Union, how does that change anything for you? Do they suddenly smell really bad? Do they impinge on your right to walk down the road? Do they hurt your eyesight now they are in union of some kind? At my old job there were a couple of openly gay men. To be honest, I initially was disgusted. They were loud and flamboyant, always wanting to know everybody’s news. But during my time there, they were the most understanding of people, and very loyal friends to not only myself, but everyone else too. I’m not saying every gay person is flamboyant or loyal, but my initial feeling of unease was unfounded and to this day we have good friendships, just like the many other friendships I have made over the years. I realised they are normal people. Soon after the passing of the law in 2004, the couple had a Civil Union. And guess what? We are still friends. Nothing changed in our friendship, in our interaction, in their attitudes to others. At the societal level, why must we deny normal the right to be in union of some sort afforded to other normal people? On the theological level, let God be the sole judge on ALL of us for ALL our actions, including how we treat same-sex couples.
No I wasn’t in prison lol….. but I work there…. heres what a day in prison is like… 0500hrs - 0530hrs is the head count 0530hrs - 0600hrs morning wash up 0600hrs - 0700hrs its breakfast 0700hrs - 0800hrs getting ready to go to work (.50 an hour lol) 0800hrs - 1100hrs morning rounds (facility janitors) 1100hrs - 1200hrs lunch time 1200hrs - 1300hrs whatever is left from the morning round 1300hrs - head back to our housing. 1400hrs - 1500hrs head count and lock down for the new shift 1500hrs - 1700hrs nothing but sleep waiting for dinner 1700hrs - 1800hrs yay dinner 1800hrs - lock down The last lock down of the day until 0500hrs in the morning and start the routine all over again. Imagine doing that under serveilance camera, every single day for a year or more than a year. This is the kind of life that i really don’t want to recommend. So if you are thinking of heading to that direction… please don’t do it. Please think before you do anything stupid. You know who I saw in prison the other day. I saw one of my classmates from back home. I ask him what are you doing in here. And he was a pit confused or shocked. I don’t know if it was the fact that he saw me or the fact of what he had done. Anyways he just looked at me and said my name. I was like yeah thats me. So I took him in one of the rooms and we had a little talk. He was telling me that he was in there for hitting his son. And he regret doing it. I told him this is not Samoa my brother, this is Hawaii. And its against the law, its called child abuse. He smile and said i know, I was mad hes been skipping school taking drugs, and his only 16years old. He was in prison for a couple of months. I always see him around, but not in prison thank goodness. I even seen a couple of my brothers classmates too. Some were sentence for 5 years and some were for 10 years. One Saturday me and one of my co-workers where taking a break outside by the main gate. Yes i was working on a Saturday. I was called in to do some rush paper work. Anyways back to the story lol…… And weve seen a old Samoan couple came to visit somebody in prison. And following behind them were three young children. The age according to my calculation was 5 years old girl, 3 years old boy and a 13 month old girl. They got here it was like 7 oclock already and the line was kind of long, so we offer them our sits. The old man asked me if I was there to visit somebody and if Im a Samoan. So i answer him back that i worked here, and yes Im Samoan. They turned in there paper work and they were waiting to be called on. Ok i decided to stay there and wait for them, so that I can help to walk them in. So we waited for about 20 minutes, and talking stories with the couple. Come to find out that they were there to visit there son and the daughter in-law. The reason why they got picked up was they were caught at a drug house. And there daughter can not take any of the kids because she have 5 kids of her own and no husband. I felt so sorry for the couple they were old already and its hard taking care of three small children, with the income that they get from social security and retirement. Anyways so I walked them in for there visit and i left them there. So half and hour later i heard kids screaming outside. I went outside and I saw all three of the kids screaming and crying. The loudest one was the baby….. “I WANT MY MOMMY, MAMA TAKE ME BACK TO MY MOMMY.” and I could see the old lady crying with the baby. “SHHHHHHHH baby we will come back next week to see her again.” As they walk back out the 3 year old was crying too. To tell you the truth I was crying with them. Who in their right mine does that to their own kids? In conclusion,well you make your own conclusion. So please think before you do anything that will hurt you. Not only will hurt you and will also hurt the people that you love. [ad#bloggerid] Teine Segaula was born and raised in Samoa but now lives in Hawaii. She's a romantic who's happiest with her family and writes about life and the stories of Samoa in Teine Segaula