Civil unions legislation dies in Hawaii state House

01/29/10 AP (opening paragraphs):

HONOLULU (AP) -- Hawaii lawmakers declined to vote Friday on a bill [HB 444] that would have allowed same-sex civil unions, effectively killing the measure.

State House leaders said a narrow majority of representatives would have voted for civil unions, but they decided to indefinitely postpone a decision on whether to grant gay and lesbian couples the same rights and benefits the state provides to married couples.

01/29/10 Honolulu Advertiser (selected text):

The state Senate last Friday passed a civil-unions bill that would give same-sex and heterosexual couples the same rights, benefits and responsibilities as marriage under state law. The state House had voted 33-17 last session for a civil-unions bill that only applied to same-sex couples. Support for the bill in the House slipped out of concern with taking another vote during an election year.

01/29/10 Star Bulletin:

The state House today decided against moving out the civil unions bill for a full vote.
By a voice vote, the House chose to postpone action on House Bill 444 indefinitely ... The move to postpone indefinitely was made by House Speaker Calvin Say ... [He] has stated that he only wanted to proceed if the measure is supported by 34 of 51 House members -- a two-thirds' majority that would be able to override a governor's veto.

01/29/10 LGBT POV, by journalist Karen Ocamb:

Ocamb posts reactions by gay rights advocacy groups.