Jan 19, 2007  |  By: JOSHUA LYNSEN  | COMMENTS     

In a dramatic turnaround, a woman who once led the charge against gay marriage in Hawaii is now lobbying state lawmakers to pass a civil unions bill.

Debi Hartmann is working with gay activists and Democratic leaders in Hawaii to enact civil unions that carry the same rights as traditional marriage. The move represents a reversal for Hartmann, who once led Hawaii’s Future Today, a conservative group of Mormons, Catholics and others who opposed gay unions. In that role, the married mother of three railed against gay marriage.

Hawaii’s Future Today dissolved after a 1998 vote granted state lawmakers the authority to ban gay marriage. According to state law, “The marriage contract … shall be only between a man and a woman.”

But in an exclusive interview with Washington Blade, Hartmann said she now believes that Hawaii should enact civil unions to protect gay couples and their children.

“Someone may say ‘She’s splitting hairs,’ but I disagree,” Hartmann said. “I think there are two distinct definitions for two distinctly different relationships.”

Hartmann said she plans to lobby Hawaii legislators to grant gay couples the same benefits and protections as their straight counterparts, though she still opposes full marriage equality.

“Real people live real lives,” she said. “We need to realize that our neighbors are our friends, and they are being left out of a whole social process that we have taken for granted.”

Activists in Honolulu and elsewhere praised Hartmann’s newfound commitment to gay civil rights.

Bill Woods-Bateman, executive director of the Gay & Lesbian Education & Advocacy Foundation, said he’s ecstatic to work alongside his former foe.

“She has had a major change of heart,” he said. “She is now supporting civil unions wholeheartedly. She is becoming our poster person for the issue.”

National Stonewall Democrats spokesperson John Marble said Hartmann’s shift demonstrates the growing acceptance of civil unions.

“I think every day more Americans are realizing that providing basic legal protections to same-sex families is good for our country and actually strengthens the American family,” he said.

‘Justice for all’

Hartmann said her opinions on civil unions changed after she reviewed the rights afforded gays in Hawaii and other states.

She said she found Hawaii’s reciprocal beneficiary law to be surprisingly limited. The measure, passed 10 years ago, gives gay couples a fraction of the benefits that straight married couples enjoy.

“I thought reciprocal benefits was the most wonderful law, and took care of all the issues — until I learned about all the problems it caused for gays and lesbians.”

The law grants registered couples only basic privileges, like hospital visitation and joint property rights. Hundreds of benefits given to married couples are not offered.

But it was a child custody case in Alabama, Hartmann said, that best illustrated the inequalities that gays face.

The case ended after the state’s supreme court ruled that a lesbian’s sexual orientation precluded her from taking custody of her three teenage children. The woman had sought custody following her divorce from a man that allegedly abused her.

In his opinion, Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore called homosexuality “an inherent evil,” and a criminal act that “is destructive to a basic building block of society — the family.”

Hartmann said her research showed that many states would similarly preclude a divorced gay or lesbian parent from having custody of a child.

“And that seemed amazing to me that there were laws that refuse a mother’s right — or a father’s right — in a case of divorce,” she said. “That did tear at my very heartstrings.”

Hartmann said that after learning of these and other “social justice” disparities, she decided that gay couples needed the same legal protections that marriage affords.

“What do we mean as a country when we say freedom and liberty?” she said. “Do we allow liberty and justice for all, or for a few?”

Political partners

Woods-Bateman said Hartmann took the first step toward their political partnership.

It happened after Woods-Bateman married his partner in August 2003. After returning to Honolulu from a Canadian ceremony, Woods-Bateman was approached by Hartmann.

 “She came up to Lance and I and congratulated us,” he said. “She was so warm to us.”

With the ice broken, the former rivals began a lengthy private conversation about civil rights and the legal problems that Hawaii’s gay couples face.

Their discussions resulted in Hartmann joining the Democratic Party’s GLBT caucus, and pledging to lobby state lawmakers to pass a civil unions bill that will be offered this year.

Hartmann said many Hawaiians are likely to be astounded by her new role.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if people in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community were ...