Today lawmakers in the Colorado House of Representatives passed a civil-unions bill 39 to 26. The Colorado Civil Union Act already cleared the state Senate in February, and Gov. John Hickenlooper has announced his intention to sign it into law.
Just seven years ago, the Centennial State voted to ban same-sex marriage. The difference now is that, in the November elections, Democrats took control of the House. (Only two House Republicans crossed the aisle to vote for the bill this time.)
“Across the country, we’ve seen a sea change in public opinion on this issue,” said One Colorado’s Brad Clark. “A vast majority of Coloradans support providing committed same-sex couples with the security they need, and these fair-minded folks are glad to see civil unions finally passed.”
Should we be rejoicing at today’s news—or frustrated that full marriage equality wasn’t obtained. Vote with your words in the comments section below!
How about we take this to the next level?
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T7
As a native Coloradan, of course I’m disappointed that we aren’t celebrating marriage. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate what our lawmakers did. But with solid majorities in both houses, I really think the Dems could’ve gone for full marriage. The good news is that if the Supreme Court rules narrowly and doesn’t strike down marriage bans nationwide this June, it’s very likely that there’d be a ballot measure for it in 2014, and I’m sure it would succeed. Nate Silver appears to agree. http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/the-future-of-same-sex-marriage-ballot-measures/
comus
Unions? Congratulations on joining the 1990s.
MuscleModelBlog.com
Awesome! However, it was an interesting note that only two Republicans supported the bill.
jwrappaport
Colorado: Surging ahead to 1996!
Dakotahgeo
A huge break in the dam of ignorance, arrogance, bigotry… always starts with a small fracture in the infrastructure. Brace yourselves! This is a crack! SS Marriage in Colorado in <5 years!
dvlaries
Supermarket champange for now, the good stuff in a little while to come.
niles
@T7: as you should know, the Dems’ hands were tied
with the Marriage Ban in place. If a positive court decision happens to occur in
the future, it will be fairly straightforward at that time to transition to
marriage.
Shannon1981
Hopefully, marriage follows.
Harley
I’m sure the log cobin repugnant-clans will take full credit. After all, they DID get two repugnant-clans to cross over to the dark side.
T7
@niles: Good point. I was forgetting that Colorado’s marriage ban is not only a statute anymore, but became a constitutional amendment back in 2006. What the legislature CAN do now is to legislatively refer a constitutional amendment to voters that would repeal the ban in 2014.