Same-Sex Marriage

Photos: More civil unions than marriages at Denver license bureau in first half of May

Want proof there was a lot of pent-up demand for civil unions? According to Denver's Office of the Clerk and Recorder, the city issued 255 civil union licenses during the first two weeks of May, as compared to 245 marriage licenses. Granted, 114 of the civil-union licenses were issued during Denve ... More >>

Kathy Griffin talks Cher, Celine Dion and how straight women get laid

For the better part of three decades, Kathy Griffin has been performing standup -- but the two-time Emmy winner may be best known for her television domination. With more than a dozen comedy specials under her belt and multiple TV series with Griffin as the star, the comedian has found success in be ... More >>

Kim Jong-Un supports gay marriage: Did SNL steal this from The Onion?

Last weekend's Saturday Night Live cold-open featured a somewhat unconvincing Bobby Moynihan playing the adorably chubby supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un. The sketch revolved around the husky dictator's address to the people of NK, announcing a change in policy on two major fronts. The fir ... More >>

Marijuana and gay marriage: New study explores their legal link

Same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization aren't natural bedfellows, as it were. But do the topics have more in common than seems obvious at first blush? Jonathan Rauch thinks so. In a new Brookings Institution study on view below in its entirety, he maintains that just as states have the right t ... More >>

Civil unions bill on way to governor's desk, One Colorado plans celebration event

It's been a long time coming. After a bill to legalize civil unions in Colorado fell short in both 2011 and last year, the measure finally passed the Colorado House today. Next, the legislation heads to the desk of Governor John Hickenlooper, who's promised to sign it. This breakthrough delights B ... More >>

Photos: "Pro marriage" supporters protest civil union bill at State Capitol

At noon, two days after a Senate committee voted to approve a bill allowing same-sex civil unions, a sizable crowd of "pro-marriage" supporters rallied on the steps of the State Capitol building. A similar gathering took place in May last year following the failure of another civil union bill. But ... More >>

Colorado Civil Unions Act to be reintroduced today, activist optimistic about its chances

Although Colorado has led the way in the effort to legalize small amounts of marijuana, it's another bill that may just push the state into the 21st century: the Colorado Civil Unions Act. After dying on the legislative floor last year, the bill will be heard and debated at 1:30 p.m. today by the Co ... More >>

Viking Chris Kluwe tackles discrimination in major-league sports

J. Edgar to 8: Dustin Lance Black's artistic triumphs for gay rights

One of the great historians of our time, Dustin Lance Black is responsible for some great dramatic portrayals of our country's past. Whether his subject is Harvey Milk, J. Edgar Hoover or the California State Supreme Court, Black is painstakingly thorough with his research and masterful with his sto ... More >>

Robert Ramirez, Westminster rep, first target of pro-civil union group Fight Back Colorado

Fight Back Colorado, a group devoted to defeating anti-civil union lawmakers, has announced its first target: Representative Robert Ramirez, a Westminster Republican who narrowly won his race two years ago and who Fight Back Colorado says flip-flopped on civil unions. The group has sent mailers to v ... More >>

For Masterpiece Cakeshop, coming out against gay weddings is good for business

Photos: Protesters picket Masterpiece Cakeshop's anti-gay marriage policy

As of this morning, an online petition condemning Lakewood bakery Masterpiece Cakeshop for its policy against working with gay weddings has garnered well over 4,000 signatures. This weekend, for the second Saturday in a row, protesters gathered outside the store in an effort to convince owner Jack P ... More >>

Video: Fight Back Colorado to target lawmakers who killed civil unions bill

A new group called Fight Back Colorado has a message for the lawmakers who voted to kill a bill to legalize civil unions: Watch out. The group launched an effort today to defeat those legislators in November's election -- though they haven't yet named names.

Defense of Marriage Act ruling shows courts rejecting marriage inequality, activist says

Yesterday, the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals struck down a key provision in the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, shorthanded as DOMA. And while the ruling doesn't directly impact Colorado, where a fight over a civil unions bill killed not once but twice was the story of the just-completed legi ... More >>

John Hickenlooper, Mike Coffman could see political fallout, pollster says

John Hickenlooper and Mike Coffman aren't exactly ideological twins. But at the end of this big political week in the State of Colorado, they both face political fallout, albeit for very different reasons: a special session that failed to pass civil unions and comments questioning Barack Obama's bir ... More >>

Dee Coram, gay son of rep who helped kill civil unions bill, on love and dad

"This is certainly not the first issue we've ever disagreed on," says Montrose businessman Dee Coram about the stance staked out by his father, Representative Don Coram, in regard to the now-defeated civil unions bill. "But this is certainly the most public issue we've disagreed on." No kidding: The ... More >>

Civil unions bill dies in special session: "Forced acceptance" v. love, rights

The so-called House "kill committee" has put to death a bill to legalize civil unions. The measure, sponsored by House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino, who is gay, failed despite having bipartisan support in the full House when the committee's five Republicans voted against it. But first, supporters ... More >>

Civil unions like marrying a sheep or a horse?: GOP goes forward into the past

It's 2006 all over again. That was the year that Coloradans passed a constitutional amendment defining marriage as being between one man and one woman. It was also the year when lieutenant governor candidate Janet Rowland, when discussing same-sex marriage, uttered this: "Do we allow a man to marry ... More >>

Colorado's civil unions bill got shut out, but filmmaker Mike Shum shows the human side

Even after a committee killed HB 1006, thecivil unions bill, late yesterday, filmmaker Mike Shum holds out hope. While the documentary creator says he doesn't usually consider himself an activist, he was particularly moved by the recent round of civil unions discussion at the legislature -- and want ... More >>

Civil unions: Catholics, conservatives rally to celebrate bill's defeat

At noon, a day after Republican lawmakers defeated a bill to legalize civil unions in a special legislative session, conservatives rallied on the steps of the Capitol building. The event had been planned days in advance, but due to the demise of civil unions, the tone was celebratory. House Speaker ... More >>

Video: John Hickenlooper says civil unions aren't marriage on CNN

Colorado's special session, which begins today, is earning nationwide attention for Governor John Hickenlooper due in large part to the civil unions legislation whose death largely inspired it. But in conversation with the net's Candy Crowley (see it below), Hickenlooper avoided espousing same-sex m ... More >>

John Hickenlooper: Special session would move state forward to justice

My nephew in Chicago has a sudden interest in Colorado politics, and he's been closely following the progress of the civil union bill at the legislature -- a proposal resurrected yesterday when Governor John Hickenlooper said he would call a special session to debate the issue.

Civil unions bill: Pat Steadman calls measure's killing a disgusting spectacle

Last night, House GOP leadership killed a civil unions bill sponsored by Senator Pat Steadman by preventing a procedural vote that would have brought it to the chamber's floor today. Steadman was severely disappointed by this manner of murder, which also prevented the passage of many other bills. B ... More >>

Civil unions bill passes Senate, sponsor hopes House lemmings won't jump off cliff

Later today, the Colorado Senate is expected to formally approve a bill that would legalize civil unions. Of course, the Senate also approved a civil unions measure last year, only to see the proposal die in a House committee, with all six Republican members voting against it. Can it avoid a similar ... More >>

LGBT advocates fight Catholic Charities' threat to stop adoptions if civil unions are legalized

Video below.​Gay advocacy group One Colorado has started an online petition to fight against what it calls "scare tactics" by Catholic Charities, whose reps testified at the Capitol last week that if lawmakers legalize civil unions, it may stop providing adoption and foster care services. Why? ... More >>

Civil unions could generate $4.8 million for Colorado in first three years, study says

one-colorado.org​ If Colorado lawmakers pass a bill to legalize civil unions, the state could see a bump in its bank account -- $4.8 million in the first three years, according to a report by the California-based sexual orientation think tank The Williams Institute. That money would come from ... More >>

Proposition 8 ruling: Could it make legislatures gun shy about civil unions?

Our post about the 9th Circuit Court declaring Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban, unconstitutional, focused on the Colorado case that spelled doom for the state's anti-gay Amendment 2 circa the '90s. But could this ruling cause problems for measures like the civil unions bill progressing ... More >>

Same-sex couples could get a belated valentine from Senate Judiciary committee

The Colorado Legislature has a date with cupid a day after Valentine's Day. At 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 15, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the Colorado Civil Union Act in the old Supreme Court Chambers. The bill would provide same-sex couples the same legal protections and ben ... More >>

Proposition 8 ruling: Did Colorado's anti-gay Amendment 2 sow seeds for legal gay marriage?

Yesterday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared unconstitutional California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in the state. But the ruling, on view below, has a distinctly local flavor, since the jurists' argument is largely based on the U.S. Supreme Court's precedent-setting reje ... More >>

Reader: Civil union proposal like leftovers compared to a true marriage bill

In a recent post, Senator Pat Steadman discussed the challenges that stand before his civil unions bill, whose previous version failed to get out of committee after all its GOP members rejected it. One of our readers isn't a big backer, either -- but for what appears to be a very different reason.

Civil unions: One Colorado director Brad Clark glad for GOP group in favor of them

one-colorado.org​ The defeat of a bill to legalize civil unions in the last legislative session was a heart-breaker for those in favor of marriage equality. After passing in the Senate, the bill was defeated in a House committee by one vote -- with all six of the panel's Republicans voting aga ... More >>

B-cycle closes for the winter, with more stations to come in 2012

GLBT family values: Worship service at State Capitol "Standing on the Side of Love"

Rev. Mike Morran.​At 10 a.m. on Sunday, First Unitarian Denver and seven other Unitarian Universalist congregations will hold services at an unlikely venue: the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol building. The goal, says First Unitarian Denver Reverend Mike Morran, is to affirm family va ... More >>

Al Franken destroys Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery at same-sex marriage hearing

​It's good to know that Focus on the Family is still around to provide unintentional comedy when that organization's narrow-minded rhetoric slams head-first into reality. Case in point: On Wednesday during a Senate same-sex marriage hearing, Focus on the Family, represented by senior lobbyist ... More >>

Gay immigrants: Washington Post says to halt deportations of immigrants in same-sex unions

​ A Washington Post editorial reprinted today in the Denver Post calls for a moratorium on the deportation of gay immigrants who are legally married or in civil unions until after federal courts decide the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

Civil Union Act should pass in CO House if not blocked by extremists, says Sen. Pat Steadman

Pat Steadman.​Update below: Today, in all likelihood, SB 172, intended to legalize civil unions in Colorado, will be okayed by the state senate, following debate yesterday that warmed the heart of its sponsor, Senator Pat Steadman. Next, however, the bill must be approved by the Republican-con ... More >>

Civil Union Act debate begins: Senator Pat Steadman says public is ready for measure

Pat Steadman.​Today at 1:30 p.m., the senate judiciary committee and members of the public will begin discussing Senate Bill 172, the Colorado Civil Union Act, co-sponsored by Senator Pat Steadman: Read it below. Back in 2006, Colorado voters rejected a referendum that would have established m ... More >>

Civil unions: LGBT organization One Colorado kicks off campaign to legalize them (VIDEO)

​ LGBT-rights organization One Colorado is behind a legislative push this year to legalize civil unions in the state. On Sunday, the organization held a kickoff event for its civil-unions coalition, Voices for Strong Families. Among those in attendance was Senator Pat Steadman, who plans to sp ... More >>

David Balmer's temper and five other topics hot enough to thaw out frozen Colorado

Vicki Ferrari.​State Representative David Balmer apologized yesterday for losing "his cool" in a heated conversation last week with Senator Gail Schwartz; his agitated gesturing got him banned from the Senate floor for the rest of the 2011 congressional session. But Balmer's temper isn't the ... More >>

Same-sex marriage ban forces twelve-year-old girl into pillow fight: Kenny Be's involved

The perfect gay-marriage matchbook. Run for cover before striking.​ The open matchbook that is pictured above is my contribution to twelve-year-old Augusta Dexheimer's Wedding Pillow Project. Gus and I go way back: Her parents are former Westword staff writers Eric Dexheimer and Robin Chotzino ... More >>

Tim Tebow: Rolling Stone piece praising him attacked for implying CO Springs hates gays

Tim Tebow and mom for FOTF.​Among the most commented pieces on the Colorado Springs Gazette's website in recent days has been an editorial spurred by a Westword post, "Tim Tebow: Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi Reluctantly Predicts Big Things for 'Kid Jesus.'" Not that Gazette editorialist Wayne ... More >>

Prop 8 overruling in California feels like Romer v. Evans, says state Senator Pat Steadman

Pat Steadman.​Colorado state Senator Pat Steadman on Wednesday, commenting on the decision by a federal judge to overturn California's Proposition 8, said it's a lot like fourteen years ago. Fourteen years ago being May 20, 1996, when a U.S. Supreme Court ruling came down against Colorado's A ... More >>

Baseball, soccer, gay-marriage rally: one Denver nine-year-old's Saturday schedule

Ethan lays it out for Sen. Michael Bennet. Meet Ethan. He's nine and in Mr. Kimmal's third-grade class at the Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment in west Denver. He likes soccer, football, baseball, basketball, swimming and skiing. But his favorite thing to do after school is read, especia ... More >>

AM 760's Condescending PrideFest Tie-In

Look of the Day -- America’s Happiest Couple

Wed Alert

Marilyn Musgrave will be singing a different tune.

Letters to the Editor

From the week of September 7, 2006

Beauty and the Bestiality

Quit horsing around, Bob Beauprez!

A House Divided

When Reverend Benjamin Reynolds opened his church to gays, some called it a sin. He calls it a mission from God.