Family exhibit designed to dispel prejudice toward homosexuals

CIRA de CASTILLOTGI Staff Writer

LIHU’E—”Love Makes A Family,” a nationally touring photo exhibit aimed at

diminishing prejudice toward homosexuals, opened on Kaua’i Friday in the wake

of a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling against same-gender marriage.

The high

court ruling rendered moot a complaint filed by three homosexual couples that

their right to equal protection under the law should include same-gender

marriage.

The exhibit, currently on display in Kukui Grove’s Art Space,

depicts lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and their

families.

The 25-photograph exhibit and corresponding interview panels is

sponsored by Marriage Project Hawaii and Lambda Aloha to “contribute to the

process of dismantling the destructive power of prejudice and intolerance,

thereby making the world a safer place for all families.”

That message was

echoed by Alexander and Jane Nakatani, special guests at the opening.

The

Nakatani’s lost their three sons – Greg, was killed in a racially motivated

robbery and Glen and Guy succumbed to AIDS. Their story is the subject of a

book, Honor Thy Children, by Molly Fumia.

Al Nakatani said he was not

surprised by the court’s decision because a constitutional amendment defining

marriage as a contract between a man and a woman was passed overwhelming by

Hawaii voters in the 1998 election.

“Even our closest friends, who support

related issues like AIDS education and racial intolerance, were not able to

support the amendment,” said Jane Nakatani.

The gay community is not a

viable political force alone,” her husband said. “The community needs to forge

relationships with others who are working for human rights. It needs to work on

projects that will enable the straight community to know them as

partners.”

The Nakatanis are creating a positive future for families and

children who are part of the gay community with the Safe Passage Project, an

education outreach program that addresses the challenges that children face

growing up “gay” and acceptance by families of the alternative life their

children face. The Nakatanis say they will continue to work so that parents,

educators, the media, and government will come to understand that all children,

gay or straight, should be safe in their homes, in their schools, in their

communities.

“We lost our children. We didn’t understand what life was like

for them until it was to late,” Jane Nakatani said.

“Our message is that

human denigration and suppressing of human rights needs to be

dis-institutionalized. All children should know they have a place in the

community, free of prejudice and safe to be who they are.”