The marriage-go-round.

For gays and lesbians, Hawaii's landmark court decision brings legal marriage not within grasp but at least within sight

With a Hawaii circuit court ruling on December 3 that cleared the way for same-sex marriage, the gay rights movement entered a new - and in many ways still uncertain - era. "This is a watershed decision," says Evan Wolfson, senior staff attorney at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay group that was cocounsel in the suit challenging Hawaii's ban on same-sex marriages. "For the first time, a court declared that there is no good reason for denying gay and lesbian couples full and complete equality."

The decision provided lesbians and gay men with a joyous finish to a year distinguished by political jockeying to sabotage same-sex marriage. Fretting over the anticipated outcome of the court challenge in Hawaii, 37 states rushed bills through their legislatures to reaffirm that marriage was only for a man and a woman, succeeding in 16 cases. Meanwhile, Congress embraced the Defense of Marriage Act, which blocked federal recognition of same-sex marriages, and President Clinton threw his support behind the bill.

Yet the bitter political battles of the year were quickly forgotten when Hawaii circuit court judge Kevin Chang ruled that the state of Hawaii had "failed to present sufficient credible evidence" to prove why it should ban same-sex marriage.

Indeed, Chang's derision represents a tremendous leap forward in legal recognition of gay and lesbian relationships. "The decision lays out, over 46 pages," says Wolfson, "the truth about our lives: that we are good parents; that our children are happy, healthy, and well-adjusted; that we form committed loving relationships."

Hawaii deputy attorney general Rick Eichor, who argued the case for the state, predicted that "people will come here, get married, and then go back home and start suing the hell out of their state and federal government." Couples started calling the Hawaii Equal Rights Marriage Project, which helped sponsor the lawsuit, immediately after the ruling, asking how to get licenses.

However, gay men and lesbians can't get married just yet. The day after his ruling, Chang granted a stay preventing the state from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples pending the state's appeal of the derision. The state supreme court is likely to hear the case next summer and rule by the end of the year. Since the supreme court has already issued one ruling on the subject that was favorable to gays and lesbians, many observers believe it will do so again.

"I have no doubt this derision will be affirmed," says Dan Foley, cocounsel in the case and the attorney who originally brought the suit for the two lesbian couples and one gay couple who are the plaintiffs.

The wild card in Hawaii is the possibility of an amendment to the state constitution banning recognition of same-sex marriages. In its last session, despite lobbying by opponents of gay marriage, the state legislature failed to agree on such a measure. The court decision may revitalize amendment sup porters, however. "I don't know," says Foley, "whether we will be able to stop an amendment this session."

Advocates of gay marriage in Hawaii are hampered by a lack of funds. Foley estimates his own unpaid expenses at some $50,000. Fund-raising efforts for the Hawaii Equal Rights Marriage Project have met only modest success so far, says Sue Reardon, the group's director. "Financially it's been a struggle," she says. The group is particularly concerned about a shortfall now, Reardon says, because "the other side will be mounting a huge campaign" to block same-sex marriage.

A backlash is al ready building on the mainland. Following Chang's ruling, legislators in Wisconsin and Colorado pledged to block recognition of same-sex unions in their states. However, Massachusetts governor William Weld, a Republican, says that in his state gay couples married in Hawaii "would be entitled to all the benefits and bur dens of marriage."

Wolfson says the new skirmishes underscore that the battle over same-sex marriage is not confined to the Hawaii courts. "They're going to throw it at us again," he says. "We're going to have 30 state battles this year."

The key to stemming the backlash is to open discussions with nongay people who are uncertain about gay marriage, says Wolfson: "This was the year we broke the conversation. Next year could be the year we clinch the deal if we just go out there and engage the people who are now listening."