It's been a long time coming...

Renee and Francine celebrated their 24th anniversary together and at long last achieved recognition of their life partner status by the State of Hawaii on Friday January 13, becoming one of the first couples in the state to be joined under the new civil union law that went into effect January 1.

We were honored to be chosen by them to officiate and perform the music.

They elected an oceanside celebration above Honoli'i Beach, just outside Hilo, at a private home on the pali overlooking the ocean.  Francine performed a hula for Renee.  Such beauty, grace, elegance...

Following a certain zeitgeist that has dictated the word "marriage" be reserved for heterosexual couples, the "civil union" in Hawaii is everything that marriage is, under a separate but equal doctrine that would make Martin Luther King Jr shake his head.  Today is Martin Luther King Day, so it is difficult not to think of him and the fight for equal recognition in all ways under the law for those of us who are not society's top dog elites.

None of that was on anyone's mind on Friday when this joyous occasion was celebrated in Hawaii.  It is a little like caviar - even if the dollop on your toast is not beluga from the Caspian Sea, if your best friends are there and the champagne is flowing, the blue ocean is stretching endlessly beneath you, a celebration such as this is still one of the best days in anyone's life.  There was so much joy we could have been drinking apple juice and eating popcorn and it would have been all perfect.  It was a great, great day.

We celebrate Renee and Francine, and we celebrate Hawaii, forward thinking and guided by the spirit of aloha and living pono.  Huzzah.