Honolulu City Council members have received more than 100 emails this past week voicing opposition to former Lt Gov. Doug Chin’s nomination to the closely scrutinized city Police Commission.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell on June 8 announced the nominations of Chin and YMCA of Honolulu CEO Michael Broderick to fill two of the three vacancies on the all-volunteer, seven-member commission.
The group AF3IRM Hawai‘i is urging its Facebook followers to email testimony to the Council opposing Chin’s nomination. The group describes itself as “a multi-ethnic, multi-class organization led by women of color engaged in transnational feminist, anti-imperialist activism.”
A former Honolulu prosecutor, Chin was former Prosecuting Attorney Peter Carlisle’s chief deputy. Later, when Carlisle was mayor, Chin was tapped to be his managing director. More recently, Chin was Gov. David Ige’s former attorney general and then lieutenant governor.
AF3IRM Hawai‘i’s Facebook page provides a link to suggested language that followers can use to urge Caldwell and Council members to reconsider Chin’s nomination.
The emails point out that Chin once lobbied for a private corrections company and “has a record of anti- LGBTQ animus and homophobia.” The letters also said Chin could have done more to seek reforms and address corruption at HPD when he was Carlisle’s second-in-command.
“Mr. Chin should be held responsible for his role in HPD’s corruption, not gifted with this seat,” the letters state.
Chin, in response to the emails, said Tuesday that he is “in a very different place than I was 25 years ago” when he made remarks some perceive as an anti-gay rant found in a recording circulating on the internet. He noted that when he was a candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives District 1 seat in 2018, he apologized for the remark he’d made in the 1990s.
As attorney general, he said, he defended the Marriage Equality Act before the Hawaii Supreme Court and was the lead author of an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 19 states opposing President Donald Trump’s proposal to ban transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces. He was also the lead co-author of an amicus brief on behalf of 20 states supporting equal treatment in a case involving a Colorado cake shop that refused service to a gay couple.
“I think my actions support what I’m saying when I tell people I’ve certainly changed in my views,” Chin said.
His law enforcement background will allow him “to be able to come up with ways to institute police reforms that are constructive and effective,” he said. “I don’t feel that the short time I spent lobbying for (private corrections company) CORE CIVIC or the fact that I was a prosecutor should be disqualifiers.”
Michael Golojuch Jr., chairman of the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s LGBT Caucus, reiterated the support of Chin that he gave two years ago. “He’s proven time and time again that he will do what’s right for the people of Hawaii,” he said, “and he has gone out of his way to show that he’s had a change of heart and has evolved on our issues.”
Golojuch said Chin, as managing director, was instrumental in the annual Honolulu Pride event receiving a proclamation from the city, and that as lieutenant governor he advocated for a ban on conversion therapy.
AF3IRM Hawai‘i suggests to its followers that they tell city officials to consider three other people for the job instead of Chin. Among the three is Khara Jabola- Carolus, executive director of the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women and the domestic partner of former state Rep. Kaniela Ing.
Golojuch noted that Ing was among Chin’s opponents in the 2018 congressional race and that he raised the same points against Chin that are found in the form letters being sent to Council members now.
Both Jabola-Carolus and Ing told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that they are not involved in the AF3IRM Hawai‘i campaign and had not sent letters of opposition.
Von Mahelona, an AF3IRM Hawai‘i co-coordinator, said her organization does not believe Chin can be trusted to do the right thing. Mahelona said she was appalled that Chin supported militarized police action against “protectors” seeking to block construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea.
A spokesman for Caldwell said the mayor stands by Chin’s nomination.
Clarification: Doug Chin said Tuesday he is “in a very different place than I was 25 years ago.” An earlier version of this story omitted the word “very” from his quote.
