Civil Rights

NRA takes aim at Colorado's 2014 election

It should be all hearts and flowers when Governor John Hickenlooper signs the civil unions bill at History Colorado this afternoon. But we're betting that this historic moment will also have a history-making amount of security, given the vehement response to Hickenlooper's signing of three gun measu ... More >>

Civil rights activist Whitney Young Jr. to be featured on PBS's The Powerbroker

When you think of the Civil Rights Movement, you likely think of Martin Luther King Jr. -- for good reason. The role he played was monumental -- and because of that, monuments have been erected, pages in textbooks set aside and a national holiday named in his honor. So much attention has been given ... More >>

Alex Laundau responds to feds' decision not to charge Denver cops who brutally beat him

Organizations hoping to bury unpleasant or potentially controversial news traditionally release information late Friday, in the hope that many folks already in weekend mode miss the development. A classic example: Justice Department reps chose Friday at 6:30 p.m. to inform Alex Landau that they woul ... More >>

Thanks for coming out, America: Are pop culture and politics on the same queer path?

Waking up on November 7, I felt like a million bucks. A million bucks that could breathe again, knowing that my president was still mine, my uterus was in the clear, and so many people had exercised the right to vote. That part, the voting part, was the most exciting, because after months of the imp ... More >>

Denver cops are back to moonlighting at Chloe

Democratic caucuses: Senators, faith leaders encourage participation, decry vote suppression

In a 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, African-Americans and other minority citizens secured the right to vote. To honor their efforts, Colorado Democratic lawmakers, faith leaders and march veterans are urging citizens to utilize their voting rights by participating in toni ... More >>

They're Playing Our Song

Reader: Occupy Denver legal team member calls out ACLU over civil-rights case claims

​Kelsey Whipple's recent post about Occupy Denver's legal team exploring legal precedents involving tents as examples of speech drew a sharp response from a member of the occupation's Legal Issues Working Group. His post focuses on both the aforementioned lawyers and the ACLU, which he feels c ... More >>

What Goes Around

National Western Stock Show: Will Aurora give Gaylord Entertainment the right to vote?

​What's next? Cows will get to cast ballots in Aurora? The Libertarian Party -- like the National Western Stock Show, an institution that got its start in Colorado -- is concerned that Aurora is about to give voting rights to a corporation: Gaylord Entertainment, the out-of-state company tryin ... More >>

Mike Coffman, repeat Shmuck, wants to make it harder for Spanish speakers to vote

Mike Coffman.​U.S. Representative Mike Coffman is no stranger to voter suppression. In fact, the 6th District Republican lawmaker has a long history of tinkering with elections. His latest campaign would make it more difficult for people who don't speak English well to vote across the country ... More >>

Medical marijuana lawsuit filed, claims regulations violate state constitution

Kathleen Chippi.​In May, cannabis advocate Kathleen Chippi asked for donations to help her file a lawsuit to challenge Colorado medical marijuana regulations, which went into effect today. And while she didn't collect quite as much as she hoped, the total was enough to make the suit viable. It ... More >>

Janet Napolitano intros "If You See Something, Say Something" video: Like 24, except lamer

Video below.​Why was Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in Denver yesterday? To promote the expansion to Colorado of DHS' "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign. The flagship item is a video on view below about the general public keeping an eye out for terrorist ... More >>

Tonight: Growing up White on the Reservation revisits a turbulent time in 1972

Pamela Mencher is white.​Pamela Mencher has spent eleven years working on her play -- but in some ways, she's been working on it her whole life. Born on a Lakota/Sioux reservation in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Mencher spent her formative years there and on a Blackfeet reservation in Montana dur ... More >>

Martyred Unknown

Josh "Penal" Penry: Felons vote the Democratic ticket

"How can I woo the sex offender vote?"​Yes, it's the season for blustery rhetoric and high-pressure posturing down at the statehouse. But few stunts can match, for sheer unintended hilarity, this recent blast from Colorado Senate Republicans, denouncing a bill to restore voting rights to stat ... More >>

Marijuana legalization in Nederland: Q&A with "Michigan" Mike Torpie, the man behind the initiative

Photo by Anthony Camera"Michigan" Mike Torpie circa 2004, when marijuana legalization was only a dream.​Yesterday, we told you about Nederland's passage of a marijuana decriminalization initiative -- making it the third city in Colorado (after Denver and Breckenridge) to take this step. The e ... More >>

Chimes of Freedom

Colorado Civil Rights Commission discovers that discrimination has not disappeared in a decade

​The people gathered in a meeting room at the Blair Caldwell library last summer were getting restless. "You all wasted our time," proclaimed one community activist. "This was not a waste of your time," replied Rico Munn, then-director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs, which i ... More >>

Ladies' night opponent Steve Horner gets slapped down: Drink up, women!

​Steve Horner, go back to your corner. This week, Westword received a packet that contained copies of a dozen letters sent to Horner, the anti-ladies' night crusader, from Steven Chavez, director of the Colorado Division of Civil Rights, all dated March 11 and all starting this way: "This let ... More >>

Medical marijuana dispensary victory in Castle Rock: Town backs down

Plants 4 Life is back to serving customers dishes like this.​On Monday, we updated you onthe story of Plants 4 Life, a Castle Rock medical marijuana dispensary that had received a business license from the town only to be prevented from selling its main product because weed is illegal under fe ... More >>

From the week of October 8, 2009

Drink up, Denver! The Division of Civil Rights has confirmed your right to enjoy ladies' night

Wake-Up Call: A member of the bar

​I am not a lawyer, but lately I've been called upon to play one when visiting local watering holes -- as a member of the bar, so to speak. The owners of these locales all want to know one thing: Can they hold a ladies' night? I've developed an unwanted expertise on the subject, ever since S ... More >>

Threat against abortion doctor Warren Hern: Read the indictment here

Warren Hern, in an image from a Boulder Daily Camera video.​As Patricia Calhoun pointed out earlier this morning, Boulder's Warren Hern, the last practitioner in the U.S. still doing late-term abortions, was the subject of a death threat by a Spokane, Washington, man, Donald Hertz, mere weeks ... More >>

Steve Horner fights for his right to be wrong.

Wake-Up Call: Civil rights, better late than never

​"You all wasted our time," proclaimed community activist Alvertis Simmons at a public forum held July 27 by the Colorado Division of Civil Rights. "This was not a waste of your time," replied Rico Munn, the cool-headed director of the Department of Regulatory Affairs, which includes the Div ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Civil Rights on the road

​ The Colorado Civil Rights Commission took its show on the road last night, hosting an evening forum at the Blair-Caldwell Library. And if the conversation didn't seem to go exactly where Colorado Civil Rights Division director Steve Chavez wanted it to go -- after an active initial discussio ... More >>

Steve Horner: A name that drives people to drink

On my way home from the Colorado Civil Rights Forum last night, I stopped by Lola, which was hosting the first of the Denver Five dinners. (More on that coming later today from Nancy Levine, who was at the dinner from the start.) And, inevitably, I spotted a restaurateur in the crowd who's had rece ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Emmett Till, RIP

The original casket of Emmett Till was among the missing items uncovered in the Alsip, Illinois, cemetery scandal. After the body of the fourteen-year-old civil rights martyr was exhumed in 2005 for an investigation into Till's lynching back in 1955, when the Chicago boy dared to talk to a white wom ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Disorder in the court

The fireworks started early for the 4th. Early last week, we got a call from a reporter in Mankato, Minnesota, researching a story about Steve Horner, the anti-ladies night crusader who started his fight in that state (where he wound up in jail for harassing the head of Minnesota's civil rights co ... More >>

Ladies Night foe Steve Horner doesn't even live here. So how can we discriminate against him?

The Colorado Civil Rights Division has a double standard for ladies' nights -- and newspapers

Going through election withdrawal? How 'bout a protest?

California's Proposition 8 outlaws scenes like this. I don't know about you, but I had a distinct bittersweet taste in my mouth on November 5. Sweet for obvious reasons; the bitter came from the passing of Proposition 8 in California. I thought it was a damn shame that just as our nation seems t ... More >>

Gag me with a ballot

Celebrating Americons

Four musical moments in history that helped shape our lives and our country.

Delegating Denver #47 of 56: Tennessee

A Really Raw Deal

Shmuck of the Week

Steve Horner-Free Corner

If ladies’ night is this city’s biggest sin, we’re doing all right.

Drink Up, Ladies!

Steve Horner's crusade to end ladies' nights falls flat.

Ladies’ Nights, RIP

And you know who to blame: Steve Horner.

Last Call for Ladies’ Nights?

If Steve Horner gets his way, ladies could be singing the booze.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of 2/22/2007

Ladies' Plight

Rosa Parks didn't surrender to discrimination and take a different bus. So why should Steve Horner go to a different bar?

Names and Faces

There are thousands of illegal-immigrant stories in the city. This is one of them.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of February 21, 2002

Good Cop, White Cop

Ronnie Williams says he's being punished for trying to start a white officers' association.

Target Practice

A class-action suit becomes a vehicle for racial justice.

Letters