HAWAII JOINS BATTLE OVER GAY MARRIAGE.(MAIN)

Byline: WILLIAM SAFIRE

MAUI, Hawaii -- As the legislative session headed toward a midnight close Friday night, opponents of homosexual marriage insisted on a recorded vote. Supporters of gay rights won. Hawaii's state senators voted 15 to 10 against the more conservative House's bill to ban the licensing of marital unions of persons of the same sex.

As a result, the state's lawyers will find it harder to assert a ``compelling state interest'' in limiting marriage to one man and one woman. Baehr vs. State of Hawaii comes before Judge Kevin Chang in August; the likelihood increases that he will rule that the state Constitution's provision against sex …