An election or a holy war?
Thursday, September 10th, 2009The battle in the Democratic Party over the sanctity of its platform in favor of gay unions became more convoluted with Councilman Gary Okino's announcement that he'll likely challenge 'Aiea Rep. Blake Oshiro in the Democratic primary.
Oshiro, the House majority leader, was the sponsor of HB 444 allowing for civil unions while Okino was one of its most vocal critics — and he's made little secret that the issue is his primary motivation for running against Oshiro.
Last month, the state Democratic Party reprimanded state Sen. Mike Gabbard for helping to lead the successful effort to at least temporarily derail HB 444 in the Senate.
His punishment by the party's state central committee occurred after top Democratic elected officials had encouraged Gabbard to jump from the GOP to the Democrats in full knowledge that he'd led the fight against gay unions for more than a decade and had no intention of getting in line with the party platform.
The party took no action against other Democratic senators who opposed HB 444 or other prominent Democrats like Okino who actively worked against it.
Gabbard was singled out because he warned that support for civil unions could cause lawmakers to lose their jobs, but Okino warned legislators of a penalty more severe than losing their jobs — incurring the wrath of God.
In testimony before the Legislature more extreme than anything Gabbard said this year, Okino said civil unions were against the word of God, described homosexual relationships as a perversion and accused gay people of spreading disease.
In response to a senator's question, Okino, who is active in the Transformation Hawai'i movement to bring God into government, said he bases his moral decisions on the Bible rather than the law.
Okino said he's running against Oshiro "to kind of bring a righteous point of view" and won't support the party's platform on gay unions or other social issues.
"It is the people's party, right?" he said.
People who seem seriously conflicted on the platform. anyway.


