HCR 99 Hawaii House · 2025 Regular Session

REQUESTING THE HAWAII STATE LGBTQ+ COMMISSION AND HAWAII STATE COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN TO COLLABORATE AND CONDUCT A COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF THE HAWAII REVISED STATUTES AND RECOMMEND AMENDMENTS TO INCORPORATE GENDER-NEUTRAL TERMINOLOGY.

HCR 99 is a resolution requesting Hawaii's LGBTQ+ Commission and Commission on the Status of Women to collaborate on reviewing all state laws (Hawaii Revised Statutes) and recommending changes to replace gendered language with gender-neutral terms. The commissions must draft proposed legislation, develop guidelines for future bills, and submit a report with recommendations by January 2026. This resolution does not change laws directly but initiates a process to update state statutes for greater inclusivity. The goal is to ensure state laws better reflect diverse gender identities and provide equal recognition and protection for all residents.

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 7, 2025 Last action Mar 28, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

HCR99 → HCR99_HD1 · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill text was reformatted from a document markup format to a clean text version, with minor substantive changes to the resolution's requirements. The most significant change is the deadline for the report, which was extended from 'twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2026' to 'December 31, 2026', giving the commissions more time to complete their work. The Lambda Law Hawaii reference was changed to 'Lambda Law Student Association at the University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law'.

Scope change

No substantive change to the bill's scope or applicability; the core request for a comprehensive review of Hawaii Revised Statutes for gender-neutral language remains the same.

TIMELINE

The deadline for submitting the report was extended from twenty days before the 2026 Regular Session to December 31, 2026, providing more time for the commissions to complete their review and draft recommendations.

REQUIREMENT

The specific civil rights expert organization to be engaged was changed from 'Lambda Law Hawaii' to 'Lambda Law Student Association at the University of Hawaii at Manoa William S. Richardson School of Law'.

TECHNICAL

The document was converted from a markup format with line numbers and metadata to a clean text format, improving readability.

Floor votes

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No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Mar 28, 2025

Committee

Report adopted; referred to the committee(s) on JHA as amended in HD 1 with Representative(s) Shimizu voting aye with reservations; Representative(s) Alcos, Garcia, Matsumoto, Pierick voting no (4) and Representative(s) Cochran, Hussey, Muraoka, Ward excused (4).

lower

Mar 28, 2025

Committee

Reported from HSH (Stand. Com. Rep. No. 1681) as amended in HD 1, recommending referral to JHA.

lower

Mar 20, 2025

Lower · Passed

The committee on HSH recommend that the measure be PASSED, WITH AMENDMENTS. The votes were as follows: 6 Ayes: Representative(s) Marten, Olds, Amato, Chun, Keohokapu-Lee Loy, Takayama; Ayes with reservations: none; 2 Noes: Representative(s) Alcos, Garcia; and 1 Excused: Representative(s) Takenouchi.

lower

Mar 14, 2025

Committee

Referred to HSH, JHA, referral sheet 22

lower

Mar 7, 2025

Introduced

Offered

lower

3 primary · 0 co-sponsors