In vetoing the bill, the Governor called for a referendum on the issue, declaring "I have become convinced that this issue is of such significant societal importance that it deserves to be decided directly by all the people of Hawaii."

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The veto of the civil unions bill sparked a call to action on the part of gay rights groups in Hawaii and on the mainland. The Human Rights Campaign, Equality Hawaii, and the lesbian-gay-transgendered caucus of the Democratic Party worked hard to register voters and to campaign for the election of former Representative Neil Abercrombie as Governor of Hawaii in the 2010 election.

In 2011, the legislature fast-tracked the civil unions bill that Governor Lingle had vetoed. In February, the state House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 31 to 18; in the Senate it was passed by a vote of 18 to 5.

When the law went into effect on January 1, 2012, Hawaii became the seventh state to provide same-sex couples civil unions or domestic partnerships with all the rights and responsibilities of marriage.

Upon the announcement of the Senate's vote on February 16th 2011, Governor Abercrombie issued a statement declaring that civil unions "respect our diversity, protect people's privacy, and reinforce our core values of equality and aloha. . . . this bill represents equal rights for all the people of Hawaii."

Civil Unions in Illinois

The question of whether Illinois should adopt civil unions was a campaign issue in the 2010 race for governor. Incumbent Governor Pat Quinn came out unequivocally in favor of enacting civil unions, while his Republican opponent was adamantly opposed, promising to veto any legislation that authorized civil unions unless it was submitted to the voters via referendum.

When Governor Quinn narrowly won reelection, the Democratic majorities in both houses of the Illinois legislature quickly moved to introduce legislation creating civil unions that provided all the rights and responsibilities of marriage for both heterosexual and homosexual couples.

The legislation was vigorously opposed by the Illinois Catholic Conference, but on November 30, 2010, the House voted 62-51 in favor of civil unions, and on December 1, the Senate followed suit on a vote of 32-24. When the civil union law took effect on June 1, 2011, Illinois became the twelfth jurisdiction in the United States to extend marriage, domestic partnerships, or civil unions to same-sex couples.

Setback in Maryland

With the triumph of many candidates who pledged to support marriage equality in the 2010 elections for the Maryland legislature, it was widely believed that Maryland would become the sixth U. S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.

At first, all seemed to be going according to schedule. On February 24, 2011, the state Senate passed the marriage equality bill on a 25-21 vote.

Inasmuch as passage in the Senate was believed to be the most difficult hurdle for the bill to overcome, most observers expected the bill to become law. However, passage of the bill in the Senate galvanized opponents of marriage equality--especially the Mormon Church, various African-American Churches, the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and the National Organization of Marriage--and many members of the House of Delegates were pressured to vote against the measure. Even some Delegates who had campaigned in favor of marriage equality began to waver.