HRS §572B-11
Civil union partners count as spouses in state law
Read the official text at capitol.hawaii.gov ↗This section says that when state laws use words like spouse, family, or next of kin, those words include people in a civil union. So a civil union partner has the same legal standing as a married spouse for those purposes.
spouses
The statute, as written — References and inclusions
A copy, taken August 20, 2026. The version published by the Legislature is the one that governs, and it may have changed since. Check it before relying on anything here.
A party to a civil union shall be included in any definition or use of the terms "spouse", "family", "immediate family", "dependent", "next of kin", and other terms that denote the spousal relationship, as those terms are used throughout the laws of the State.
LawTrove is not legal advice. The summary above is a computer-generated restatement — the authoritative text is the official version linked above.