Hawaii became the 15th state to authorize same-sex marriage with Governor Neil Abercrombie's signature on the legislation, the Los Angeles Times reports. When the bill was in the House, "deliberations lasted for several days and included a committee hearing in which 5,000 people signed up to testify for more than 50 hours, followed by hours of debate on the House floor on nearly 30 proposed amendments."
A court challenge to the same-sex marriage law is already pending. The argument is that legislatively authorizing same-sex nuptials violates a Hawaii constitutional amendment against same-sex marriage. However, Hawaii's attorney general concluded the constitutional amendment authorized legislators to ban same-sex matrimony, but that's a step they didn't take, The LA Times also reported.
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