The same-sex marriage advocates occasionally demonize their opponents as Christian conservatives in thrall to Pat Robertson. But Rosehill is a lapsed Protestant whose daughter is a lesbian. Still, the campaign's most quoted and colorful character is strategist Michael Gabbard, who practices bhakti yoga and runs something called Stop Promoting Homosexuality International. He blames gays for the failure of his health-food store, which they picketed. It would shock gays here to know they had such power.
Many locals stay closeted.
Local gays sometimes resent white transplants who are so open and easy with their homosexuality. For years, the small Hawaii group paying for the lawsuit that preceded this vote was almost entirely white, many of them men and women who moved to Hawaii to escape their own closets on the mainland. The emotionalism of the campaign is clear even in quieter settings. Young sighs, objects to his choice of words and pushes on. It is so open.