Equality Hawaii was a statewide political advocacy organization in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

that advocated for

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

, and

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

(

LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...

) rights, including

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

History

Equality Hawaii was founded as Family Equality Coalition on November 16, 2007, as a

501(c)(4) A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)). Such organizations are exempt from some Taxation in the Un ...

nonprofit corporation. It was founded based on community and expert input at the organization's first meeting in September 2007 after a civil unions bill was attempted in February 2007. The organization made an early commitment to advocating for same-sex marriage in Hawaii. The first general membership meeting was held in partnership with

UNITE HERE UNITE HERE is a labor union in the United States and Canada with roughly 300,000 active members. The union's members work predominantly in the hotel, food service, laundry, warehouse, and casino gaming industries. The union was formed in 2004 b ...

Local 5 and featured

Cleve Jones Cleve Jones (born October 11, 1954) is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2020. In 1983 at the onset ...

. In 2010, the board elected to change its name to Equality Hawaii to reflect its scope expanding beyond just same-sex marriage. Originally named Family Equality Foundation, Equality Hawaii Foundation (EHF) was founded on October 27, 2009, as a

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

nonprofit corporation. While its 501(c)(3) application was being approved by the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

(IRS), the organization was fiscally sponsored by the Equality Federation Institute. This allowed the organization to immediately pursue grant funding. The organization received its official designation from the IRS on June 5, 2011. Equality Hawaii Action Fund was founded August 13, 2010, as a

527 organization A 527 organization or 527 group is a type of U.S. tax-exempt organization organized under Section 527 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (). A 527 group is created primarily to influence the selection, nomination, election, appointment or defeat ...

. It was formed in response to

Governor of Hawaii The governor of Hawaii () is the head of government of the U.S. state of Hawaii and its various agencies and departments, as provided in the Hawaii State Constitution Article V, Sections 1 through 6. It is a directly elected position, votes bei ...

Linda Lingle Linda Lingle (; June 4, 1953) is an American politician who served as the sixth governor of Hawaii from 2002 to 2010. She was the first Republican elected governor of Hawaii since 1959, and was the state's first female and first Jewish govern ...

vetoing a 2010 civil unions bill; opponents of legal recognition of same-sex relationships had made public pledges to remove from office any legislators who supported civil unions; and Gubernatorial candidates

Mufi Hannemann Muliufi Francis Hannemann (born July 16, 1954) is an American politician, businessman, and non-profit executive. He was elected twice as Mayor of Honolulu in 2004 and 2008. Hannemann has served as a special assistant in Washington, D.C., with t ...

and

Duke Aiona James R. "Duke" Aiona Jr. (born June 8, 1955) is an American politician and jurist who served as the eleventh lieutenant governor of Hawaii under Linda Lingle from 2002 to 2010. A member of the Republican Party, he also served both as an attorn ...

were promising to not only veto any future civil unions legislation, but put the issue on the ballot. On February 16, 2011, a civil unions bill was passed and signed into law by Governor Abercrombie on February 23, 2011. Equality Hawaii was a founding member and fiscal agent of Hawaii United for Marriage, a coalition of organizations that advocated for the

Hawaii Marriage Equality Act The Hawaii Marriage Equality Act of 2013 is legislation passed by the Hawaii State Legislature as Senate Bill 1 (SB1) and signed by Governor Neil Abercrombie which legalized same-sex marriage in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Prior to the bill's ena ...

, which was signed into law on November 13, 2013, by Governor

Neil Abercrombie Neil Abercrombie (born June 26, 1938) is an American politician who served as the seventh governor of Hawaii from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. Born in Buffalo, New York, Abercrombie is a ...

, and same-sex couples began marrying on December 2, 2013. From 2013 to 2016, Equality Hawaii worked to pass key legislation to empower and protect Hawaii's LGBTQ community, enabling transgender people to change the gender identity maker on official documents and preventing health insurers from discriminating against them. In 2016 Equality Hawaii formed a strategic alliance to share networks and resources with the Hawaii LGBT Legacy Foundation, an organization dedicated to unifying, facilitating and empowering Hawaii's LGBTQ community. Equality Hawaii ceased operations in January 2017.

Structure

Equality Hawaii is often used to describe three separate organizations: * Equality Hawaii — a

501(c)(4) organization A 501(c) organization is a nonprofit organization in the Law of the United States#Federal law, federal law of the United States according to Internal Revenue Code (26 U.S.C. § 501(c)). Such organizations are exempt from some Taxation in the Un ...

* Equality Hawaii Foundation — a

501(c)(3) organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, Trust (business), trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of ...

* Equality Hawaii Action Fund — a

Activities

Equality Hawaii activities and programs included: * Hawaii Family Portraits * Community education * Media relations * Community outreach * Legislative lobbying * Voter outreach

References

External links

* {{LGBT in the United States LGBTQ law in the United States LGBTQ political advocacy groups in Hawaii Organizations established in 2007 Organizations established in 2009 Organizations established in 2010 2007 establishments in Hawaii 2009 establishments in Hawaii 2010 establishments in Hawaii Equality Federation Organizations based in Honolulu Charities based in Hawaii 501(c)(4) nonprofit organizations 527 organizations

History

Structure

Activities

See also

References

External links