Voters in Hawaii will join those in California in deciding on a constitutional amendment related to same-sex marriage in Nov. 2024. Both states follow Nevada, which decided a constitutional amendment in 2020.
While California, like Nevada, will be voting on whether to repeal language defining marriage as between one man and one woman, the amendment in Hawaii is different. In Hawaii, an amendment was passed in 1998 that said the legislature could “reserve marriage to opposite-sex couples.” The amendment itself did not prohibit same-sex marriage. In 1994, following a court ruling that challenged the state’s restrictions on issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the state passed a law specifying that marriage is a union between one man and one woman. In 2013, the state passed the Hawaii Marriage Equality Act, which legalized same-sex marriage.
In 2020, Nevada became the first state to repeal constitutional language prohibiting same-sex marriage. Voters approved the amendment 62% to 38%.
