Baehr v. Lewin Marriage Equality Case p.3 (Out And About)
Channel: ThinkTech Hawaii
Date: 2020-11-03

LGBTQ rights pre & post Baehr v. Lewin.  The host for this episode is Winston Welch.  The guest for this episode is Steven H. Levinson.

In 1991, in a lawsuit Baehr v. Lewin, the Hawaii Supreme Court held that denying access to marriage to same-sex couples amounted to sex discrimination under the Hawaii Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, and that at trial, the Director of the Health would have the burden of demonstrating that the state had a compelling interest in the otherwise prohibited sex discrimination. This ruling created an enormous shift in the cultural landscape, setting off a series of events that culminated in the US Supreme Court’s 2012 Windsor and 2015 Obergefell decisions recognizing marriage equality nationwide, and has had impacts worldwide in the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Today, continue our discussion on the ramifications and backlash to the ruling including state and federal DOMAs and what transpired since that time. If time, we will look at the current climate and forefront of challenges to LGBTQ+ equality in Hawaii and elsewhere.

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