the Offsetter Playlist for Equality, Curated by Lisa Yamamoto
It’s a rare exciting time for common sense in Hawaii. Now that the House and Senate have passed Senate Bill 1, the historic bill that grants same-sex couples the right to marry, Governor Abercrombie is expected to quickly sign it through. As written, it should go into effect on December 2.
Executive Director of the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Cultural Foundation Lisa Yamamoto was on the front lines at the capital this week with various organizations such as Equality Hawaii, Hawaii United For Marriage, and the ACLU. She created this Offsetter playlist about the movement.
“The songs basically focus on what’s currently happening,” she says, “but they’re also drawn from the past, too. I didn’t want to use songs that are too current, because for my generation, I’m not experiencing what the older generation is experiencing—the 50-60 year olds who have been couples for years. They are experiencing things that they need the law to allow, things they’re not entitled to because they’re not legally married; things such as estate planning, healthcare. I have so much respect for them because, while they’re fighting for themselves, they’re also fighting for their hanai ohana, because it’s going to happen to us later.
“I made the playlist very literal, a progression of how the bill started and where it’s heading. Hawaii is one of the first states that went forward and said, Why can’t gays get married? But we’re at the end of the liberal states that are at this point. The playlist starts off with a lesbian couple, and they just wanted to get married. So they did what any other couple would do, and it became this huge thing. This big controversy, people saying, You can’t do this. The law came into play. And then religion and everything else came into play, too. So that’s kind of where I was trying to go with the playlist, until, coming to an end, where it asks, What’s happening now?”
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the Offsetter is a daily source of comprehensive news, analysis, and criticism for Honolulu. Because why not??
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