Hawaii Begins a New Battle for Gay Marriage

LOS ANGELES - Oct. 28, 2013 - PRLog -- Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie has called and budgeted for a special legislative session of Hawaii’s state legislature to work on adopting a same sex marriage law. In fact the Governor submitted is own draft for the bill: The Hawaii Marriage Equality Act of 2013. The special session is scheduled to begin on October 28 and is anticipated to last at least five days.

After a two year heated battle over civil unions, Hawaii adopted a civil unions law in 2011. Filmmaker/ Director Greg Andermann waded deep in the middle of that battle in Hawaii and the Prop 8 firefight in California and the outcome was CHASING RAINBOWS the first neural film on  gay marriage. CHASING RAINBOWS covers the battle between the Evangelical church and the LGBT movement in America.

After closely tracking and assessing the issues for the past five years, Filmmaker/Director Greg Andermann has become a defacto subject matter expert on the topic. CHASING RAINBOWS distributed by New World Distribution, is the first film that explores how and why the Evangelical church and the LGBT feel about the issues and each other.

The Hawaii conservative churches reacted harshly in 2009 and 2010 towards civil unions and Greg expects an even stronger reaction over marriage equality.

Greg Andermann on Hawaii News Now :  http://newworlddistro.com/nwd-news/greg-andermann-takes-i...

Greg Andermann will be in LA for AFM and is available for appearances and interviews.

For Filmmaker/Director Greg Andermann History Is About to Repeat Itself As Hawaii Begins A New Battle For Gay Marriage

For CHASING RAINBOWS’ Hawaii based international Filmmaker/Director Greg Andermann  - History is about ready to repeat itself. Back in 2009, Andermann waded deep into the middle of America’s greatest cultural divide: the battle between the Evangelical Church and the LGBT over gay marriage and civil unions.

It was a hot sunny Sunday afternoon in the spring of 2009 and the rotunda at the Hawaii State Capitol was suddenly swarming with more than 15,000 Christians that had flooded into downtown Honolulu to protest against a civil unions bill.

Greg Andermann:  “That day when we stood there filming the mayhem, I didn’t know what the terms ‘Civil Unions’, ‘LGBT’ or ‘Transgender’ even meant.”  “There I was and I was a Christian but I had to question why my so-called fellow Christians, many whom I knew, were behaving that way. Lots of little kids held hateful signs.”

This was the beginning of CHASING RAINBOWS and the world’s first neutral film on Gay Marriage was born. It became a two-year trek into the complete unknown. Andermann never imagined that he would have become a defacto subject matter expert on the issue.

Four years later, Hawaii is about to erupt once again when tens of thousands of Christians descend on the state capitol to protest Hawaii Governor Neil Abercrombie’s Special Legislative Session starting October 28, 2013 to pass the Governor’s same sex marriage bill. It’s playing out exactly like before: there will be public hearings, amendments, protests, tons of signs, mailers, phone calls to legislators, commercials, editorials and heavy news coverage.

Greg Andermann:  “What I learned was incredible, it actually broadened my understanding about so many issues. And amazingly enough Hawaii pretty much invented gay marriage. Back in the mid 1990’s Hawaii was the first state where a same sex couple tried to sue the state for the right to marry. So here we are today everything is coming around full circle – History is repeating itself.”

To date no one had ever taken an unbiased layperson’s Average Joe look at gay marriage and homosexuality. CHASING RAINBOWS is the first. There is no agenda in the film other than to find out what the issue is really all about and to let two divergent sides have an equal amount of time to present their side of the story.

CHASING RAINBOWS goes way beyond the issues of gay marriage, the religious and political implications. The film delves heavily into the legal issues, the separation between church and state, the psychology, the biology, the questions of genetics, human sexuality and gender issues, discrimination and civil rights and even touches on the broader applications of sex education, and potential implications on families.

Greg Andermann, “The film was somewhat prophetic in that it profiled what was about to happen and we completed it in 2011, with a viewpoint clearly about three years ahead of where the nation was headed.” “I could sense that President Obama was about to evolve on the topic and with him the majority of the nation.” “In the 2012 presidential election the incredible split between electorate’s demographics over so many issues correlated to exactly what I had learned in making the film. This is largely a generational and a worldview issue.” “ Most people on either side are not completely sure why they really believe or feel the way they do. It’s really a matter of acculturation and education and the film helps to clarify that for many people.”

CHASING RAINBOWS is a raw, deeply sensitive, thought provoking and sometimes even humorous ride into a ton of information that actually serves as an educational and entertaining primer on all aspects of gay marriage and the many surrounding issues. It’s designed to prompt intelligent discussion and serve as a bridge between two groups of people that generally refuse to even share the same room and debate the topics.

Greg Andermann: “The best part about the film is literally seeing the people involved tell their own personal stories, share their beliefs and explain why this issue means so much to them. There are touching personal stories from LGBT families and couples. It humanizes the people on both sides of the issue in a way that’s unique.”

For Greg Andermann when asked where he stands his answer is also somewhat unique, “As a Christian and a humanitarian - I believe that it’s important for me to stand essentially neutral on this issue. There has been a lot of fear and mistrust involved on both sides. I think the broader group of people, namely the church, has to realize that gay marriage is something that’s going to happen across this world. I think we have to just accept that. For those Christians that don’t agree with that, I think your best tact is to protect the rights of churches that don’t want to participate in gay marriage ceremonies - its that simple. The one thing I’ve learned making this film is that the opposite of love is fear. And we all need a lot more love in this world. I’m sure that even Jesus would agree with that!”