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" Hawaii&amp;#039;s Senate and House of Representatives have finally agreed on a bill that would legalize gay marriage, making the state the fifteenth in the union to do so. Previous attempts at passing the bill in the Senate had failed, so amendments now include &amp;quot;protections&amp;quot; for religious officials and institutions who just won&amp;#039;t stand for legitimizing the celebration of two people&amp;#039;s love regardless of their gender.  Hawaii&amp;#039;s Governor Neil Abercrombie has promised to sign the bill into law reportedly as soon as today. Of course someone (cough Republican state representative Bob McDermott cough) is threatening to file a restraining order to block its implementation. Because there&amp;#039;s always at least one very vocal stick in the mud when gay rights happen. Meanwhile, Democrat Jo Jordan is still trying to explain her three votes against the bill. Jordan became the first openly LGBT representative to vote against marriage equality legislation (and thus her own rights) last week. She told Honolulu magazine that the exemptions provided were &amp;quot;too narrow&amp;quot; and blamed &amp;quot;Mainland&amp;quot; media attention for the brouhaha surrounding her votes. She also compared LGBT groups unfavorably to the religious activists who flooded the state Capitol with ridiculous anti-gay testimony. Says Jordan, &amp;quot;[religious groups] didn&amp;#039;t know who I was. Outside, I was Rep. Jordan sitting at the table. They had no idea who I was, or my lifestyle.&amp;quot; In other words: a state of being semi-closeted around folks who&amp;#039;d take offense at your lifestyle. Progress! Photo Credit: AP Images  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a16460/hawaii-gay-yay/>