Hawaii is an unusual case (aside from all the ways in which Hawaii is obviously an unusual case), in that it was the very first state where a judge ruled that a same-sex marriage ban was unconstitutional, way back in the early 1990s. So they went through the stages of a judicial ruling and constitutional-amendment battle very early on, at a time when gay marriage was generally considered way out there. I think the ruling was stayed while they battled it out, over a period of several years, but there was an amendment in 1998, which was a little unusual in that it didn't ban same-sex marriage but gave the legislature the ability to ban it.
That might conceivably have made opposition a little more entrenched by 2004 than it would have been otherwise, in what was generally a liberal state. I'm thinking the subsequent evolution there is best seen as a regression toward average blue-state sentiment.
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Date: 2012-05-16 03:07 pm (UTC)That might conceivably have made opposition a little more entrenched by 2004 than it would have been otherwise, in what was generally a liberal state. I'm thinking the subsequent evolution there is best seen as a regression toward average blue-state sentiment.