Tag: brad clark

“This is personal for me," Montez said. "From coming of age as a gay Latino kid in a rural Colorado town to lobbying my legislator for the passage of civil unions – and everything in between – I understand what LGBT equality means for Coloradans and our families.”

Colorado state Representative B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, this weekend said the experience of bigotry and intimidation she experienced last spring during the debate over a same-sex civil unions bill has strengthened her position in support of the bill. She said that, even though she's not running for reelection and won't be at the capitol to vote, she's confident that conservatives will come to see the bill as consistent with their social values and that next year's version of the bill will pass with significant Republican backing.

DENVER-- Opposition to a gay-rights civil union bill defeated here last month was directed in large part by Colorado Springs-based evangelical empire Focus on the Family and the Colorado Catholic Conference. The Christian-right campaign, however, also reenergized a leading anti-gay rights activist organization of the 1990s, influential rough-and-tumble group Colorado for Family Values.

A unanimous federal appeals court ruling issued in Boston today found the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional in that it discriminates against same-sex couples. The ruling is a victory for the Obama administration and supporters of both gay rights and states' rights and a blow for the national anti-gay marriage movement and for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who filed a controversial and critics say confused amicus brief in the case last year in support of the embattled federal law.

DENVER-- Outmaneuvered over the last six days in a legislative chess game centered on a gay-rights civil unions bill here, the Colorado Speaker of the House on Tuesday, the second-to-last day of the session, effectively turned over the board. Frank McNulty, a Republican from Highlands Ranch, walked out of the House at roughly 9 p.m. and stayed away for more than two hours, letting a recess run all the while and killing the civil unions bill and nearly 40 other bills in the process.

Conservative Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, voted to advance a state civil unions bill that would recognize same-sex partnerships last week in large part because she had come to believe the legislature, not the ballot box, was the best place to weigh civil rights questions.

DENVER-- Supporters rallied today on the steps of the Denver City and County Building in support of a state civil unions bill scheduled for crucial consideration this afternoon by the House Judicial Committee.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s title board on Wednesday approved language for a “religious freedom” ballot initiative submitted last month by Colorado Springs-based evangelical organization Focus on the Family. Supporters of the initiative can now begin collecting the roughly 86,000 valid voter signatures it will take to land the proposal on election ballots this November.

The National Organization for Marriage, the nation’s largest lobby against marriage rights for same-sex couples, faced criticism on Tuesday over documents unsealed by a court in Maine outlining a plan to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks” on the issue. LGBT rights groups in Colorado and the nation are calling the strategy hurtful, divisive and cynical.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday announced it was upholding an earlier court ruling that California's Proposition 8 voter-passed ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional. The decision sets the stage for another appeal, likely to the U.S. Supreme Court, and drew applause from gay-rights advocates buoyed by another clear legal victory. Openly gay Colorado Congressman Jared Polis declared the ruling a victory for American notions of justice and equality.