At 12:01 a.m. Wednesday morning, a new law legalizing civil unions
took effect in Colorado. Denver and Boulder immediately started to issue
licenses, and on Wednesday morning Fran and Anna Simon, the first gay
couple granted a civil union in the state, said their vows at a ceremony
held at a downtown Denver municipal building.
After a crowd of hundreds of people counted down the moments until
midnight, the Simons were given their license at 12:02 a.m. A few
minutes later Denver Mayor Michael Hancock officiated their civil union
ceremony.
The Simons were joined at the ceremony by their 5-year-old son
Jeremy, and the couple wore the same white wedding dresses they wore
seven years ago at their commitment ceremony.
“Our commitment doesn’t change, but we will have a burden lifted off
our shoulders,” Anna Simon said. “Loving and committed couples need
legal protections.”
The state’s new law grants gay and heterosexual unmarried couples the
ability to form civil unions and exercise rights similar to those
granted to married couples, including the right to make medical
decisions, qualify for health insurance and survivor benefits, transfer
property and adopt children.
The Denver clerk’s office stayed open until 3 a.m. Wednesday morning
issuing civil union licenses, and U.S. Hancock, Rep. Diana DeGette and
local judges spent hours officiating civil union ceremonies in the
atrium of the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building.
“I’ve been a part of the effort to legalize civil unions in Colorado
now for several years,” Hancock told the Associated Press. “I feel a
tremendous amount of pride for the people of Denver to work with their
legislators to finally pass this piece of legislation to allow people to
love and live as they so choose.”
DeGette, who has been a longtime supporter of gay rights, told the
Associated Press that she’d specifically earned her clergy status online
so she could participate in Wednesday morning’s ceremonies.
“Members of the GLBT community are the same as everyone else — they want loving, permanent relationships,” she said.
In Boulder the first license was granted to Bonnie Lloyd and Pattea
Carpenter, who’d already made history when they became the first lesbian
couple in the U.S. to have both of their names on their child’s birth
certificate.
By the 3 a.m. cutoff time, 130 couples in Denver and 48 couples in
Boulder were reportedly granted civil unions. The state resumed granting
licenses at 8 a.m. Wednesday morning.
In 1992 voters in Colorado approved a ban on discrimination
protection for gay people, and they made gay marriage illegal under the
state constitution in 2006. The civil union bill was signed this March
by Gov. John Hickenlooper, a development indicative of the major gains
that gay rights advocates have made in recent years.
But as happy as the Simons were to celebrate their civil union, Anna
Simon told the Associated Press that the law only represents another
step in the struggle for LGBT marriage rights.
“Like most people growing up, you have a dream of falling in love and getting married, not getting a civil union,” Simon said.
(Original post here.)
