Hawaii Has Much To Celebrate This Pride Month, But Also Much Still To Do
By Dean Hamer and Joe WIlson. Civil Beat - June 10, 2024.
History offers powerful lessons, but unless known, they can hardly be heeded.
Hawaii’s first Pride event was in 1974, four years after the Stonewall uprising that marks the beginning of the modern LGBTQ+ era. But Hawaii has a far longer history of respecting the value of every individual, and has emerged as one of the few places in the world where we continue to advance rather than regress.
It’s a complex and inspiring history that deserves to be better known.
That was the motivation for the Lei Pua Ala Queer Histories of Hawaii project, an effort to uncover, document and honor gender and sexual diversity across the uniquely multicultural landscape of Hawaii. Our premise is that queer people, like others, deserve to have our stories marked and valued on the commemorative landscape.
Most people know that Hawaii was the birthplace of the marriage equality movement — an accomplishment that will hopefully be cemented in this November’s election by the removal of Section 23, a discriminatory provision added to the Hawaii Constitution in 1998. But that is only one of many, often unspoken, histories of Hawaii’s LGBTQ+ mahu communities.
Did you know that?
A stone monument, Ke Ahuolono, sits on the King’s Trail in Waikoloa to honor the love between Lonoikamakahiki, a powerful Hawaii island chief, and his aikane Kapaihiahilina, a male commoner from Kauai.
In 1920, decades before the Baehr v. Lewin marriage equality case, two plantation workers were married in Aiea. When reported to police that one was mahu, they were deported to the Philippines — but soon returned with a hanai child.
In 1985, the mayor of Maui tried to deny a permit for a Miss Gay Molokai pageant, a fundraising event for a halau hula. In an early victory for gay civil rights, lawyer Dan Foley, later of Baehr v. Lewin fame, took the mayor to court and reached a settlement, ensuring the show went on.
The Wilhelmina Tenney Rainbow Shower Tree, the official street tree of Honolulu, is named after two women, both of whom had long-term lesbian relationships.
Today, Hawaii stands as a beacon of LGBTQ+ mahu rights, with comprehensive legal protections against discrimination in employment, housing, public accommodations, marriage and adoption, and transgender inclusive policies for legal documents, healthcare and insurance. We also have two lesbian Hawaii Supreme Court justices.
The Rev. Jack Isbell, pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church, leading Hawaii’s first Gay Pride parade. (David Yamada/Honolulu Advertiser/ 1974)
No single factor explains this or any other aspect of Hawaiian history, but our research is revealing some common threads: Hawaiian understandings of gender and sexual diversity were never fully suppressed by missionary interventions; the influx of immigrants who brought more inclusive, non-Christian religious beliefs; the strength of women, from matrilineal times to Title IX; the Democratic revolution that shifted power to the party that, whatever its faults, is far better than the alternative; and Hawaii’s heightened sensitivity to modern civil rights, born from the indignations of the plantation period and World War II.
History offers powerful lessons, but unless known, they can hardly be heeded. The task now is to bring these stories to wider public attention, and to inscribe them upon the landscape where they can be appreciated by current and future generations.
Performers at The Glade, a Chinatown nightclub that was popular for its “Boys Will Be Girls” revue circa 1967. (City Art Works/Bishop Museum Archives)
Last year, we were involved in adding a new interpretive plaque to the Kapaemahu monument, four large stones in Waikiki that honor the four mahu — individuals of dual male and female spirit — who brought the healing arts from Tahiti to Hawaii. After years of suppression, this inspiring story is now available to all.
At the end of this Pride Month, on June 28, a new historical marker will be unveiled at the site of the former Glade nightclub, in Chinatown, famous for its “Boys Will Be Girls” revue. Less remembered is that the showgirls had to wear an “I Am a Boy” button to avoid arrest due to an anti-crossdressing law that was finally overturned in 1972 when Hawaii turned toward a more progressive legal framework.
This is a good start, but more work is needed.
Fortunately, the City and County of Honolulu has been very helpful in these early efforts, placing the City Seal on the Glade plaque, with more to come. Hopefully other counties and the state will follow suit as queer history is everywhere in the islands.
Most of all, these histories need to be taught and learned. Just as every student in Hawaii learns about voyaging, hula and the ahupuaa (traditional land division) system, so should they become familiar with mahu (third gender), aikane (same gender) and punalua (family group marriage) relationships, and the more inclusive beliefs and practices of other cultures that comprise Hawaii today. Perhaps the newly constituted Hawaii LGBTQ+ Commission can lead the way.
This year alone, 33 states on the continent passed pernicious anti-LGBTQ bills, from “don’t say gay,” to prohibiting pride flags in public places, to denying medical care to trans individuals. We hope that this project, and Hawaii’s unique history, will inspire appreciation for a truer understanding of diversity, equity and inclusion for all.