Hawaii same-sex couples enter into civil unions

Four Hawaii same-sex couples entered into civil unions early Sunday as a new state law went into effect.

The Star Advertiser reports that Monica Montgomery and Donna Gedge joined three other same-sex couples — Saralyn Batt and Isajah Morales, Gary Bradley and Paul Perry, and Bonnie Limatoc-DePonte and Lydia Pontin — as the first in Hawaii to be joined in civil unions.

The new law allows same-sex and opposite-sex couples to enter into a civil union with the same state rights and responsibilities as traditional marriages.