Anti-Gay LDS Activities     

TO ALL CONCERNED CITIZENS:

The 1996 Session of the Hawai'i Legislature has made it perfectly clear that "religious" political extremists (including Mormons) and their cohorts in the Legislature are willing to do literally anything, even subvert the American democratic process itself, to enact their homophobic agenda.

The details of one surreptitious event will serve to illustrate this reality, including the Mormon mindset in these activities. On Monday, April 1, 1996, the Senate Committee on Consumer Protection filed and posted at the state capitol a standard public "Notice of Hearing" by the Committee on Consumer Protection, chaired by Senator Milton Holt, of House Bill No. 2524, House Draft No. 1, Proposed Senate Draft No. 1 (customarily abbreviated as H.B.2524, H.D.1, Proposed S.D.1), "A Bill For An Act Relating to Licensing." [ENDNOTE 1] Hearing was set for three days later, Thursday, April 4, 1996, at 5:00 in one of the Senate conference rooms. The Notice contained the notation, "DECISION MAKING TO FOLLOW, IF TIME PERMITS." More significantly, the Notice contained the standard paragraph regarding the "public hearing process," as follows:

Persons wishing to testify should submit 25 copies of their testimony with no holes to the committee clerk, Room 231, State Capitol, 24 hours prior to the hearing. Testimony may also be faxed if less than 5 pages in length, to the Senate Sergeant-At-Arms Office at 586-6659 or 1-800-586-6659 (toll free for neighbor islands), at least 24 hours prior to the hearing.

* * *

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CALL THE COMMITTEE CLERK AT 586-6880. [ENDNOTE 2]

However, those who tried to obtain copies of "Proposed Senate Draft No. 1" were told by telephone and in person that Senator Holt's office would not release copies until the time of the hearing. Hence, the process of public notice and participation was thwarted. The hearing did not commence until about 5:15 p.m. on the appointed date, until which time the door to the hearing room was locked while the members of the Committee met within. A large crowd had gathered in the hallway, including numerous members of the anti-gay lobby and Hawai'i's Future Today. Conspicuous in the crowd was the Mormon[ENDNOTE 3] liaison, Jack Hoag, an official of First Hawai'ian Bank[ENDNOTE 4] and a Regent of the University of Hawai'i[ENDNOTE 5], and chief executive officer of the Mormon Church's Hawai'i Reserves, Inc[ENDNOTE 6]. All were overheard discussing among themselves the true intent and plan of the hearing, which was to "gut" the contents of H.B. 2524 HD.1, which related to the licensing and control of osteopaths and other health-care providers[ENDNOTE 7], and replace it with a statutory amendment prohibiting the "licensing" of same-sex couples for marriage.[ENDNOTE 8]

In other words, despite the fact that the general public was denied knowledge of and access to the true "Proposed S.D.1," the anti-gay coalition had received advanced notice, were in collusion with the Senators who were advancing the secret measure, had come prepared to give both written and oral testimony, and were actively participating in this subversion of the democratic process. This would be a clever end-run around anybody who might be anticipated to speak against the plot in any way. Many other Senators were outraged at the actions of these few.[ENDNOTE 9]

Among those testifying orally was Mormon Jack Hoag, who was among the first to present his prepared testimony[ENDNOTE 10]. Just prior to the commencement of the hearing, Mr. Hoag was overheard to respond to someone's question about the subject matter of the hearing by saying, "It's about physicians and osteopaths, don't you know that?" Yet he was also heard conferring with others in his coalition about the true intent of the meeting, and almost immediately thereafter, he took the seat at the Committee's table reserved for testifiers and began a prepared narration about same-sex marriage.

The bill passed the Committee quickly[ENDNOTE 11], although those who contacted the Committee afterward to get copies of the written testimony were told that there was no written testimony, and that no minutes had been taken of the hearing![ENDNOTE 12] However, Standing Committee Report No. 2649 which came out of the Committee a few days later contained this statement:

The purpose of this bill, as received by your Committee, is to permit disciplinary action when a physician or osteopath has been convicted of a sexual offense under the penal code when the offense involves a patient. Your Committee finds that this measure is unnecessary at the present time.[ENDNOTE 13]

Mr. Hoag appeared live on the evening television news[ENDNOTE 14] to express his happiness that this measure had taken place. Many others have expressed their joy at it as well. If this had happened regarding anybody else but homosexuals (the disabled, children, or another minority), the hue and cry would have been almost universal against it[ENDNOTE 15]. Given this Church-sanctioned and Church-funded conduct by Mr. Hoag and other Mormons and their Catholic friends, the question becomes how to account for such conduct in a Church which professes to abide by the words contained in a revelation given to its founder Joseph Smith in 1831: "Let no man break the laws of the land, for he that keepeth the laws of God hath no need to break the laws of the land."[ENDNOTE 16] Mormon scripture declares:

"We do not believe it just to mingle religious influence with civil government..."[ENDNOTE 17]

So what is the official Mormon position about the obligation to abide by the law? Does the end (opposition to same-sex marriage) justify the means (subterfuge in the democratic process)? Does Mormon practice, if not theology, allow such room for political "dirty tricks" and "lying for the Lord"? For Mormons, and their other "Christian" cohorts, this would (or should) not be merely a political issue but a moral issue as well, and they need to see their conduct as immoral. It violates what Brigham Young referred to as the Mormon Creed: "Mind your own business."[ENDNOTE 18] How can these Senators be permitted to remain in office? How can Mr. Hoag continue as a University Regent or as a First Hawai'ian Bank director?

PLEASE DISSEMINATE THIS INFORMATION!

For the name, telephone, and fax number of your local State Senator and State Representative, call the following:

Chief Clerk, Hawai'i State Senate: 586-6720

Chief Clerk, Hawai'i State
House of Representatives: 586-6400

ENDNOTES:

1 - Those familiar with the titling of new bills believed that the vagueness of this title was calculated by the original House drafters at the start of the 1996 Session intentionally to provide a vehicle for this later gutting and amendment. By far the more accepted procedure would have been to write the title: "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LICENSING OF PHYSICIANS AND OSTEOPATHS," or similar language. The Hawai'i Constitution, Article III, Section 14, provides: "No law shall be passed except by bill. Each law shall embrace but one subject, which shall be expressed in its title."

2 - Rule 20, Rules of the Senate, State of Hawai'i, The Eighteenth State Legislature (1995-1997), provides that all meetings of committees "shall be public," with times and places "as are convenient for attendance by the general public." Rules 21 through 24 further outline the duties of the committees as to fact-finding and decision-making, all of which must be public. Rule 85 allows the Rules to be suspended only upon "one day's notice of such change" and a vote by a majority of the members of the entire Senate. Rule 86 requires that Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedures, 1989 edition, "shall govern." Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure. St. Paul: West Pub. Co., 1989.

Chapter 56 of Mason's governs the amendment of bills. Section 616, paragraph 4, pp. 427-28 provides in pertinent part as follows (emphasis added):

A committee has full power with reference to proposing amendments to measures submitted to it, except that it cannot change the subject. All amendments must be germane to the subject of the measure. The body [i.e., the Senate] may refuse to receive or consider amendments proposed by a committee which are not relevant to the general subject of the bill.

Similarly, Section 617, paragraph 1, p. 428, of Mason's provides in pertinent part as follows (emphasis added):

A committee may recommend that every clause in a bill be changed and that entirely new matter be substituted as long as the new matter is relevant to [a] the title and [b] subject of the original bill.

Accord, Ken H. Takayama, Assistant Director for Research, Legislative Reference Bureau, State of Hawai'i, Hawai'i Legislative Drafting Manual, 9th ed., 1996; see also House Majority Staff Office, House of Representatives, State of Hawai'i, 1996 House Staff Manual, "Samples of Bills and Resolutions," Honolulu, 1996, and comparable Senate version(s). Inasmuch as the original subject of H.B. 2524 was the licensing of osteopaths and other health-care providers, the substitution of same-sex marriage would appear to violate the above same-subject rule.

In addition to the problems presented by the secrecy of the April 4 activities, there is also the question as to whether, in the circumstance where the Committee entirely "guts" the subject of an existing bill and replaces it with a totally unrelated subject, the public had true "notice" of what the Committee's meeting would be about.

3 - As an official in the Honolulu Stake of the Mormon Church. A "stake" is an ecclesiastical unit somewhat comparable to a Catholic diocese.

4 - A call to First Hawai'ian Bank's corporate headquarters confirmed that Hoag is at present a member of the Bank's Board of Directors. Formerly, he was an officer and director.

5 - Hoag has by no means kept separate his roles as a University Regent and an advocate of homophobia. On 22 March 1996, The Chronicle of Higher Education, at B4, published his letter to the editor lamenting the "depraved state of university morals" and denouncing as hypocrites the American Civil Liberties Union and its support for gay, lesbian, and bisexual students. The letter was signed, "John A. Hoag, Regent, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu." He became somewhat more circumspect when, on 11 April 1996, he published another homophobic letter in the University of Hawai'i student newspaper, Ka Leo o Hawai'i [The Voice of Hawai'i], at 3, which he signed, "John Hoag, Private Citizen." In an attempt to rehabilitate Rex Lee, the letter stated:

Former U.S. solicitor general of the Department of Justice, the late Rex E. Lee, who has tried 59 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court has been clear on the issue of civil rights: "The prohibition of same-sex marriage does not constitute invidious gender discrimination."

—a statement directly contradicting Lee's position in his 1980 book, A Lawyer Looks At the Equal Rights Amendment, written when Lee was Dean of the Brigham Young University (Utah) Law School, in which (at pages 61-68) he specifically argued against the ERA on the ground that discrimination based on sex (gender) does and would include discrimination against same-sex couples. The letter concludes:

The ideal we espouse for our students throughout the university system is an honest and professional examination from all sides of an issue. Hopefully, this perspective presents another viewpoint for the inquiring mind.

The eleven-member Board of Regents of the University of Hawai'i is constituted as the University's governing body under Hawai'i Revised Statutes chapters 304 and 306. Section 304-1 prohibits discrimination at the University. Regents are appointed (for four-year terms) and removed by the governor. Section 304-3. Like all other public officials, they are fiduciaries subject to the law, including the Ethics Code, Hawai'i Revised Statutes chapter 84 ("Standards of Conduct") and Article XIV of the Hawai'i Constitution (applying to all public officials and employees "including members of the boards, commissions, and other bodies").

In addition to the general "high ethical standards" of "personal integrity" manifested in these provisions, the Preamble to chapter 84 states as one of its purposes the effort to "educate the citizenry with respect to ethics in government." The actions of Hoag and others appear to have violated these provisions. As the Honolulu Advertiser editorialized on Saturday, April 6, 1996, at A6, the conduct of the Senators and their homophobic cohorts regarding H.B. 2524 constituted "subterfuge" and "made a mockery of the legislative process to sneak through at the last minute a bill" of which only the homophobic insiders had knowledge. The editorial stated:

The Rev. Marc Alexander, executive director of the Hawai'i Catholic Conference and co-chairman of Hawai'i's Future Today [Hoag's group], called [Senator] Holt's action courageous. It was anything but. There is nothing courageous about circumventing the legislative process and not giving the public a fair chance to speak to the bill's merits.

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin for the same date, at A-1 and A-6, reported that the procedure "trampled on rules meant to ensure open and orderly deliberations, tarnishing the Legislature." The article quoted another Senator as stating: "Any time you blatantly violate your own (chamber's) rules and procedures you do damage to the institution."

Hoag, and through him the Mormon Church, aided and abetted this process by secretly participating in it from the beginning. How else could Hoag have come to the hearing prepared to address the merits of the brand-new same-sex contents of the bill when the general public knew nothing about it? This is conduct unbecoming a University Regent.

6 - According to corporate records at the State of Hawai'i Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) Business Registration Division, a holding company based in the Mormon Community of La'ie, O'ahu, in close proximity to the Mormon Temple and the BYU-Hawai'i Campus. It operates in addition to, or in lieu of, the former Zions Securities Corporation.

7 - The original H.B. 2524 related to the kinds of misconduct for which "any license to practice medicine and surgery may be revoked." This language persisted in H.D.1.

8 - Such chicanery is contrary in both procedure and substance to the Board of Regents' own Policies and Bylaws, Section 1-5 of which ("Policy on Non-Discrimination and Affirmative Action," 19 Apr. 1991) commits the University of Hawai'i to a "policy of nondiscrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, handicap, marital status, arrest and court record, sexual orientation, or veteran status." This is discussed, inter alia, in David Yount, Who Runs the University? The Politics of Higher Education in Hawai'i, 1985-1992. Honolulu: Univ. Hawai'i Press, 1996, 111-145 (Chapter 5: "The Board of Regents: How It Works and Who Runs It"), esp. pp. 112-13 on conflicts of interest with religion, politics, etc.

9 - Hence, the actions of these few are not to be attributed to the entire Senate.

10 - Also testifying were Mike Gabbard, head of an organization called "Stop Promoting Homosexuality Hawai'i," and Father Marc Alexander of the Catholic Diocese. Like Hoag's, these testimonies were also prepared ahead of time and were read into the record. Only a representative of the Hawai'i chapter of the ACLU testified against the bill.

11 - Those joining Senator Milton Holt (chair) at the table and in the affirmative vote to pass the secret bill were Senators James Aki, Randy Iwase, and Whitney Anderson. On 9 July 1992, pursuant to the requirements of Article XVI, Section 4, of the Hawai'i Constitution, Senator Holt, upon filing his papers to run for public office, subscribed the following "Oath of Loyalty" before a notary public:

I, Milton A. I. Holt, do solemnly swear and declare, on oath that if elected to office I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, and the Constitution and laws of the State of Hawai'i, and will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that if elected I will faithfully discharge my duties as state senator to the best of my ability; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; So help me God.

The other Senators did likewise. The same kind of oath is taken by each member of the University's Board of Regents, pursuant to the aforementioned provision of the State Constitution and HRS Section 26-34. This includes Mr. Hoag, who subscribed his oath on July 7, 1995. He was appointed to the Board of Regents by Governor Ben Cayetano.

In 1971, when the State Legislature passed Act 143 (S.B. No. 194) regulating the University's Board of Regents, the Senate Committee on Higher Education unanimously and specifically noted its deep concern to control factionalism, or the erroneous notion that certain Regents represent a constituency, which this Committee finds quite unacceptable and incongruous with the intent of this bill. It is the firm conviction of this Committee that no member of the board [of Regents], regardless of age or occupation[,] should be representative of a faction or a constituency.

Senate Standing Committee Report (SSCR) No. 442 (1971).

12 - A further admission that the democratic process was subverted. As the hearing notice itself specified, submission of 25 copies of the written testimony no later than 24 hours prior to the hearing was a prerequisite to testifying at the hearing. Without written testimony, the chair should have disallowed any oral testimony.

13 - Senate Standing Committee Report (SSCR) No. 2649 (Committee on Consumer Protection), H.B. No. 2524, H.D.1, S.D.1, 4 Apr. 1996, at p. 1. Thus, the SSCR admits that even the short title of the bill, "RELATING TO LICENSING," did not state its true subject as required by the State Constitution. A more accurate title might have been: "RELATING TO DISCIPLINE OF PHYSICIANS AND OSTEOPATHS."

14 - KHON television (Honolulu), channel 2, 6:00 p.m. news broadcast, Thursday, 4 April 1996.

15 - An excellent and dispassionate general discussion of the entire same-sex marriage situation may be found in the just-published William N. Eskridge, Jr., The Case For Same-Sex Marriage: From Sexual Liberty To Civilized Commitment. New York: The Free Press, 1996.

16 - Doctrine & Covenants 58:21 (Mormon scripture).

17 - Doctrine & Covenants 134:9.

18 - Journal of Discourses (JD) 2:92 (Brigham Young; 6 Feb. 1853); see also JD 3:152 (Amasa Lyman; 2 Dec. 1855) and JD 5:292 (Brigham Young; 4 Oct. 1857). The Journal of Discourses contains official speeches by Mormon general authorities.

For more information contact the Hawai'i chapter of Affirmation at: 94-1012 Anania Place, Mililani Hawai'i 96789. Or call: 623-5508.