Lawrence Downes, a member of The New York Times editorial board who has family ties to Hawaii, has penned an opinion piece on the same-sex marriage debate here.

Downes argues that Hawaii, should it become the 15th state to legalize gay marriage, will have come “full circle” — but not merely because the same-sex marriage movement began in Hawaii 20 years ago.

Excerpt: 

Start in the 1820s, when the first New England missionaries arrived on the islands, burning with a zeal to save heathen souls. Hawaii is one of our oldest live-and-let-live battlegrounds, where Western views of propriety and sexual morality grappled with a contrary point of view. Hawaii was a peaceable kingdom then, with relaxed attitudes toward sin and clothing. Missionaries saw drinking, dancing, tattoos, gambling and debauchery, and countered with hymns, bolts of crisp cotton and muslin — and monogamy. …

Scholars have noted a deep Hawaiian tradition of tolerance and fluid sexual identity, of acceptance, toward gay people especially. …

A local news outfit, Honolulu Civil Beat, said the issue is splitting the state evenly, at 44 percent on each side. The debate has an upside-down feel to it. The people wearing the rainbow leis and invoking Hawaii’s heritage and the “aloha spirit” are saying: Let’s please get married, in the Western tradition. The conservatives’ reply: No rites for you. …

Photo: Screen shot, Nov. 3. (The New York Times)

—Chad Blair