When I go to vote on November third, I'll be given the power to pick on queers.

So will you.

We'll be asked if we want to change the constitution of the state of Hawai`i so that it forbids homosexual marriages.

If we vote "Yes" we'll be writing the language of prejudice and discrimination into the fundamental law of the land for the first time. A "Yes" vote is like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.

Let's put the issue of homosexuality to the side for just one minute. I want you to remember something about the constitution. Maybe you didn't do so hot in high school civics, but so what. Certainly you know the basics.

All people are equal. Minorities have the same rights as anybody else. Each citizen gets life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

There is no "except for" clause in the constitution. There's nothing that says, "All people are equal, but Japanese people can't marry Filipinos." "Tall people can't marry short people." "Bald people can't have children."

The constitution doesn't tell people who to marry. Who to have sex with. What to believe. The constitution doesn't single out any one group of people and say — EXCEPT FOR YOU.

Except for the Portuguese — they can't drive cars. Except for old people — they can't watch television. Except for red-heads — they can't drink beer. Except for you.

Except for the people I don't like.

It doesn't say any of that. Here's what it says:
"We, the people of Hawai'i, grateful for Divine Guidance, and mindful of our Hawai`ian heritage and uniqueness as an island State, reserve the right to nurture the integrity of our people and culture, and to preserve the quality of life that we desire... with an understanding and compassionate heart toward all the peoples of the earth."

Divine Guidance? Hmm. The God who made homosexuals — who made roughly ten percent of every human population, in every country and culture on Earth, homosexual — also made Buddhists and Jews and Shintoists and Hinduists and Muslims and disbelievers and (yes) even radical right fundamentalist Christians. Please consult that God while you're standing in the voting booth with your head bowed.

Hawaiian heritage? As everyone knows, the Hawaiians were amazingly tolerant of sexual behavior. Our uniqueness as an island State? We're the civil-rights state number one. We know from experience how terrible it is to discriminate against minorities. We remember the cane camps and the World War Two internments. We learned how to form our own language — pidgin — out of a disharmony of voices. We were the first to ratify the ERA. Our courts have ruled that homosexuals have a constitutional right to marry if they want to. When it comes to extending tolerance and acceptance to minority groups, we're the biggest saps in America.

And America is so brave about the idea of personal liberty that it even tolerates intolerant people — Nazis and Ku Klux Klanspeople and people who dislike homosexuals so much that they're willing to change the constitution in order to single them out and deliberately limit their personal liberty.

People like that have come into our state from the mainland with a budget of two million dollars and the deliberate intent to change our constitution. They have publicly stated their purpose, which is to limit choice in three specific areas — the right of a person to love someone of the same gender; the right of a person to have or not have children; and the right of a person to decide whether or not to die.

They're starting with the same-gender issue in this election. They're spending lots of money on advertising. They want you to vote Yes — Yes, let's change the constitution. Yes, let's put it in our constitution that we the people of Hawai'i discriminate against homosexuals.

Later on, we'll go after the rights of pregnant girls. Then we'll go after people who are so sick that they want to die. But for now, let's pick on the queers.

If these people can't get you to vote Yes on their amendment, they have a back-up plan. They want you to vote Yes on the bill right next to it — one that will authorize the public expense of twelve million dollars to create a Constitutional Convention.

This "Con-Con" would assemble a bunch of citizens to give our constitution a total overhaul.

The intolerant people behind the gay-bashing amendment would love to see us vote for such a convention. It would give them a perfect opportunity to push all their ideas into the constitution — while it's lying there anaesthetized on the operating table.

The scary thing about "Con-Con" is this: who's going to be there? You? Not me, certainly. I'm too busy trying to make a living.

It'll be you-know-who. The people with the two million dollars and the bad attitude about homos.

I'm mad at them.

I'm mad at them for putting such a smutty referendum on my ballot, for dragging their dirty little campaign into the dignity of the polling place, for making me imagine for even an instant that I would ever go to my homosexual friends and say — hey, you can't do that!

If my homosexual friends are living together in committed partnerships, and some of them are, I wish them the best. I've been married twice. It's a tough thing to do, to stick together. Some of my gay friends seem to be better at it than I.

My relationship with a woman is not made worse or better by their relationship with each other. Their success has no negative affect on my family. It does not make me or my sons less heterosexual.

My children are all heterosexual — at least for now — but that's really just a matter of chance. I doubt any influence could have somehow "made them gay." On the other hand, and a flip of the coin, I probably could have fathered a gay child. And I probably would have spent a lot of useless time wondering why. Was it the divorce? Should I have played basketball with him more often? But eventually I would have just given up trying to figure it out and done what we all should do.

Accept it.

If my son was gay, I would want to know as soon as he knew. I would not want him to suffer the terrible loneliness of hiding. As his father, I would like to be the one to reassure him that he's a person of quality, a person worthy of respect, despite the messages that he'd be getting in the schoolyard, on the streets, and even in the voting booth.

I don't have to point out to you — I'm sure you've observed it yourself — the mean gay-hating streak that runs through American culture. I can't say where it comes from. The cruelty is perpetuated in the schoolyard, a dangerous place for a "queer."

Imagine what would happen in a high school if the students voted, and the school authorities allowed, a rule stating that homosexual students couldn't use the drinking fountains.

It's a small thing. Just like saying they can't get married. No big deal. Just an official, school-wide statement that, yes, these members of the population are suspicious and probably inferior.

How do you think the gay-bashers in the hallways would react to the news that they just got a stamp of approval?

If we vote to sanction meanness, then we are personally responsible for the pain that will inevitably follow.

I'm mad because the proposed amendment is dangerous. It's explosive. Resist the two-million-dollar campaign to make you vote Yes. When you read the expression "Shall the constitution of the state of Hawai'i be amended...." —Say No.

Paul Wood can be reached at paulwood@maui.net

Reprinted from:
HALEAKALA TIMES, September 19, 1998
P.O. Box 1080, Makawao, Maui, Hawai`i 96768
FAX: 808-572-0168
E-Mail: haltimes@maui.net