The Colorado Independent

Friday, February 10th, 2012

Posts Tagged Gay Rights

Out Colorado Rep Ferrandino to head House Dems

By | 11.18.11 | 11:37 am

Colorado House Democrats unanimously elected Denver Rep Mark Ferrandino minority leader today. In just over two terms as a lawmaker, Ferrandino has made a name for himself as an open and dynamic figure committed to the legislative process and talented at steering substantive bills through partisan minefields toward passage. He is the second out gay member of the Colorado legislature to head the Democrats in the chamber in the last decade.

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Firebrand Maggie Gallagher steps down at the National Organization for Marriage

By | 09.22.11 | 2:15 pm

She has been a fierce presence in the trenches of national culture wars over the past few years but now Maggie Gallagher, National Organization for Marriage co-founder and chairman of the board, is stepping down. NOM announced Gallagher will be replaced by John Eastman, legal defender of social conservative causes, former Clarence Thomas Supreme Court clerk and Dean of Chapman University Law School in California.

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Citizen initiative could force gay marriage showdown in Colorado

By | 07.15.11 | 10:56 am

State establishment political progressives, including the staff at gay rights group OneColorado, seem cool on Aurora college student Mark Olmstead’s plan to introduce a 2012 ballot initiative that would overturn the state’s gay marriage ban. There’s a sense that financial and human resources would be better spent pressing lawmakers to pass legislation securing equal rights for LGBT citizens here. Lone actor Olmstead’s initiative, however, might force the issue, drawing on the energy of New York’s big gay-marriage win this month and on the sea change shift among the U.S. population generally on the matter of gay equality.

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Video: Udall among most prominent lawmaker-leaders on gay rights

By | 06.29.11 | 12:20 pm

Colorado U.S. Senator Mark Udall is leading the fight for equal rights for gay Americans on Capitol Hill and on the video internet. He released a YouTube for gay rights organization One Colorado during gay pride week and is a major presence in the Senate contribution to the “It Gets Better” campaign aimed at gay kids teased or bullied at school.

(Image: Kellie Parker/Flickr)

Across the nation, state Republicans increasingly backing gay rights

By | 06.16.11 | 7:30 am

In New York state, the legislature is poised to pass same-sex marriage and would become the third state to do so legislatively, following Vermont and New Hampshire. Republican donors are backing the effort, and its up to GOP legislators to pass the bill; several Republicans have come out in support, though the vote remains close. Nationally, Republican support for gay marriage has been on the rise, made clear this year as various states grapple with efforts to ban gay marriage while others move to legalize it. In several states, GOP leaders’ votes made the difference on key LGBT equality measures.

(image: Alan Light, Flickr)

Minnesota gay marriage battle echoes in Colorado

By | 05.24.11 | 11:51 am

Colorado hosted an intense proxy gay marriage debate around a same-sex civil unions bill during the state legislative session that ended two weeks ago. The bill was narrowly defeated pretty much along party lines. All Democrats voted for it, joined by a few Republicans. That’s roughly what happened in recent weeks in Minnesota, where lawmakers voted to include a referendum on voter ballots in the next election that would add a ban on gay marriage to the state constitution. Much of the Minnesota clash has been captured on YouTube. It echoes the debate last month in Colorado and foreshadows the debate sure to rise again here next year, when sponsors of the civil unions bill have vowed to bring it back.

Left out of first GOP debate, gay candidate Karger pushing forward

By | 05.10.11 | 11:01 am

Members of the media refer to him as a “stunt candidate.” He didn’t appear on stage in South Carolina last week for the Republican presidential debate because he failed to hit the required support threshold– 1 percent in five national polls. He won’t pull down financial backing from the conservative oil billionaire Koch brothers, nor win over the far-right readers at the RedState blog. Yet, set against the uninspiring candidacies likely to be waged by the men so far lined up to challenge Barack Obama for the White House, Fred Karger’s candidacy could be the most influential, if he stays with it. A moderate conservative former Reagan aide, longtime political consultant and civil rights activist, he is also unabashedly gay– the first ever openly gay GOP candidate for president.

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Denver Archbishop Chaput rallies support to sanction pro-choice Catholic politicians

By | 04.12.11 | 11:26 am

Denver Archbishop Chaput asked Notre Dame University Catholics this weekend to press for Church policy that would deny communion to U.S. Catholic politicians who support pro-choice or pro-gay rights positions. The speech comes in the wake of surveys that show most Catholics don’t agree with Chaput on the issues.

Speaking on the Awakening panel 'Religious Liberty and the LGBT Agenda' (l to r): Ryan Sorba, Young Conservatives of California, 'ex-gay' lobbyist Greg Quinlan, and Liberty University law professor Cynthia Dunbar, April 9

War against gays becomes a war of words–literally

By | 04.11.11 | 7:21 am

“‘Gay’ is a left-wing socio-political construct designed to create grounds for fundamental rights [based on] whimsical capricious desires,” said Ryan Sorba, chairman of the Young Conservatives of California. “Gay identity does not exist.”

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Troy Ard, College Republicans Chair, throws support behind Colorado civil unions bill

By | 03.22.11 | 10:43 am

Openly gay Chairman of the Colorado Federation of College Republicans Troy Ard is lobbying colleagues and friends to support Senator Pat Steadman’s same-sex civil unions bill making its way through the state legislature. Ard’s support for the bill is personal, political and ideological. He wants to enjoy equal rights under the law as a gay American; he believes the Republican brand would benefit enormously by embracing gay rights; and he believes Americans should always be pushing their government to expand individual liberties.

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