William E. Woods

William E. Woods
Woods as pictured in his 1967 high school yearbook
Born	(1949-10-09)October 9, 1949 Decatur, Illinois
Died	September 28, 2008(2008-09-28) (aged 58) Honolulu, Hawai'i
Alma mater	University of Hawaii
Occupation	Gay rights activist
Spouse(s)	Lance W. Bateman

William Everett Woods (October 9, 1949 – September 28, 2008) was an American gay rights activist. In 1990, he took three same-sex couples to fill out marriage licenses, beginning the series of events that would lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States.

Early life and education[]

William Everett Woods was born on October 9, 1949, in Decatur, Illinois. He attended high school in Arthur, Illinois. He transferred from Millikin University to attend the University of Hawaiʻi, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and then a master's degree in public health.^[1]

Activity[]

In 1972, Woods founded a social services organization called the Sexual Identity Center; it was intended to serve gay people specifically, but the name did not contain a reference to homosexuality because he did not want to deter straight experts from being involved. Woods was present at Hawaii's first pride parade in 1974.^[2]

In 1979, Woods was one of Hawaii's four representatives on the steering committee for the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.^[3]

In May 1981, when Jerry Falwell Sr. came to Hawaii to open a state chapter of Moral Majority, Woods led a group to register the name before Falwell could. The resulting organization, Moral Majority of Hawaii, ran newspaper advertisements proclaiming support for "family planning, civil rights for all people, pro-choice in abortion, child care programs, freedom of speech and religion, and the separation of church and state."^[2] Moral Majority of Hawaii sued Falwell for using the name "Moral Majority", causing speaking venues he had reserved to cancel his appearances. Falwell returned to Virginia after delivering a farewell speech in which it was noted that the two names mentioned in the speech were that of Jesus Christ and Woods.^[2]

In June 1990, Woods was elected to the national board of the . At the time, he was executive director and general manager of the , which had a circulation of 40,000 copies, 23,000 in Hawaii and 17,000 across the rest of the United States.^[4]

1990 same-sex marriage attempt[]

On December 17, 1990, Woods brought three same-sex couples to the Hawaii Department of Public Health's main office in Honolulu to fill out marriage licenses.^[2] The couples were and , and , and and .^[5] If they were not successfully able to marry, he planned to take them down the street to the Hawaii headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU lawyers had previously belittled similar plans by Woods, but the media's attention to this attempt forced them to take it seriously. After the three couples were told that their applications would be held until the attorney general could make a ruling, the group went to the ACLU offices at , where they filled out applications for legal assistance.^[2]

On December 29, attorney general Warren Price supported the health department's decision not to issue the licenses. Woods recruited lawyer Dan Foley, who filed the lawsuit that eventually became Baehr v. Miike.^[2] After the Hawaii state circuit court ruled against the lawsuit, it was appealed to the Supreme Court of Hawaii, where Associate Justice Steven Levinson wrote the court's 1993 decision that denying same-sex marriage violated the right to equal protection granted by the state constitution, and therefore that same-sex marriage had to be allowed unless the state could provide a reason why they should not be. In 1996, a state circuit court would rule that the state's subsequent argument that opposite-sex parents were better able to raise children was not compelling, though a 1998 amendment to the state constitution which allowed state lawmakers to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman made the ruling irrelevant.^[5]

Journalist Sasha Issenberg later wrote that "Not a single major gay-rights group formally embraced marriage rights for its core constituency until the Hawaii Supreme Court in May 1993 gave unexpected blessing to the cause, the unexpected outcome of the legal process that Bill Woods began". Issenberg described the events of December 17, 1990, as the beginning of "a chain of events" that led to legal same-sex marriage in the United States.^[2]

Campaign for office[]

In 2006, Woods ran for the Hawaii House of Representatives, but was not elected.^[6]

Other activity[]

Woods was the first openly gay person to testify before the Hawaii State Legislature and to address a state Democratic Party convention.^[2] He additionally founded the Hawaii Gay and Lesbian Center and the Gay and Lesbian Education and Advocacy Foundation, and was district chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii and head of its LGBT caucus.^{[6][timeframe?]}

Later life[]

In 2003, Woods married Lance W. Bateman in Vancouver.^[6][1]

Woods died on September 28, 2008, at the age of 58. Nancy Kern, the Hawaii Department of Health's STD/AIDS prevention coordinator at the time, remembered him as "a tireless advocate."^[6]

References[]