The drive to make Hawaii the fifth state in the country to allow same-sex civil unions is on the verge of failing, despite support from most state lawmakers.

Senate leaders had planned a vote before the full Senate as early as Tuesday, but deep divisions have emerged over whether Democrats should take an extraordinary legislative step to revive the measure after a tie committee vote.

A tie vote in committee usually is enough to kill a measure, but the bill could advance under a rarely used provision of the Hawaii Constitution if more than one-third of senators approve.

The Democratic leadership wants more than half the Senate to agree to put the bill before the full Senate. Some rank-and-file senators who support the bill, however, are unwilling to circumvent the normal legislative process.

The measure already has passed the Hawaii House.

Lawmakers’ hesitation comes after more than 6,000 opponents, most of them from religious groups, rallied against the legislation Feb. 22 at the state Capitol. Civil union supporters planned their own event at the Capitol on Saturday.

 See Support for Hawaii civil union vote wavering

The Associated Press -

Controversial Sen. Chris Buttars was stripped of his Senate committee posts not because he went on an anti-gay tirade in an interview with a documentary filmmaker but because the West Jordan Republican broke a deal with Senate leaders not to talk about gay issues.

That’s what a Senate colleague revealed on a conservative radio program Saturday.

“I have to tell you publicly that most of what Sen. Buttars said — I agree with,” Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, said on the weekly radio program “Inside Utah Politics” on KTKK-AM. “However, my concern is that we, as a Senate caucus, had an agreement that because Senator Buttars has become such a lightning rod on this issue, that he would not be the spokesperson on the issue.”

Buttars violated that agreement, Stephenson said, adding that the comments undermined “everything we’ve done” in the last three weeks of the legislative session. MORE

A defiant Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, said Friday he won’t let his ouster from two key legislative committee chairmanships stop him from defending marriage against “an increasingly vocal and radical segment of the homosexual community.”

Earlier Friday, Senate President Michael Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, took the unusual step of publicly announcing he was removing Buttars as both chairman and a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee

The decision also strips Buttars of his chairmanship of the Senate Judicial Confirmation Committee. Buttars, re-elected last year to a third term, remains chairman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and vice-chairman of the powerful Rules Committee.

Waddoups said his action should not be seen as a punishment for anti-gay statements Buttars made to a documentary filmmaker, which include comparing gay-rights activists to Muslim terrorists and calling them “the greatest threat to America going down.”

The Senate leader said Buttars is considered by his colleagues to be a “stalwart” who “represents the views of many of his constituents and many of ours.” Waddoups acknowledged he did not agree with everything Buttars said, but he repeatedly declined to be specific.

 See Utah lawmaker who made anti-gay comments removed as committees’ chairman
The Deseret News (Salt Lake City)

Four days after would-be State Senate Leader Malcolm Smith, a Queens Democrat, is said to have brokered a deal with three rogue Democratic senators who threatened to stand in the way of his party gaining control of the Legislature’s upper chamber, Smith remained unable or unwilling to explain if that bargain entails “postponing” a gay marriage vote in New York.

In a December 8 press briefing held to announce that Buffalo-area Senator Bill Stachowski would become the deputy majority leader and Albany-area Senator Neil Breslin the chair of the Insurance Committee, Smith, who is set to assume the senior Senate post of president pro tempore, took no questions, but instead abruptly departed for another meeting. Stachowski was left in front of reporters unable to confirm whether he would in fact be deputy to Bronx Senator-elect Pedro Espada, Jr. The NYSNYS News Service captured the incredible scene:

Video of the Democratic State Senate Leadership Announcement Malcolm Smith Abruptly Departed See Albany Press Corps Erupts Vs. Stonewalling Senate Dems Gay City News