Currently, same sex marriage is not recognized within the state of Colorado. Civil unions are allowed, but gay rights advocacy groups claim that this type of setup discriminates against homosexual couples, placing them as second-class citizens.
Previously, Colorado Gay Marriage was banned for same-sex couples. In recent years, five separate court cases were ruled on in an attempt to deal with the issue. Brinkman v. Long was ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, but is under appeal. Burns v. Hickenlooper was a U.S. district court case, or federal case, which also ruled in favor of same-sex marriage and is under appeal. Two cases from the U.S. Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals provided binding precedents for Colorado courts to affirm gay marriage: Kitchen v. Herbert and Bishop v. Smith. Following these two cases in Colorado ex rel. Suthers v. Hall , the Boulder County clerk was ordered to stop issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, pending an appeal to be filed before October 20, 2014.
Despite these multiple rulings in favor of equality measures for same-sex couples, Colorado Gay Marriage is still against the law.
Fifty-six percent of Colorado residents support giving same-sex couples in Colorado the right to marry. However, in 2006, an anti-gay group pushed to add a constitutional amendment to the Colorado Constitution. The amendment defined marriage as being between one man and one woman. In 2009, the Designated Beneficiary Agreements Act of 2009 was approved, which granted some marriage benefits to unmarried same-sex couples. An attempt to legalize civil unions was made in 2012, but the state legislature’s inaction led the bill to fail. Finally, in 2013, the governor signed a bill that allowed civil unions between same-sex couples.
Several Colorado Gay Marriage groups are still fighting for full wedding rights in Colorado. These groups include Why Marriage Matters Colorado, One Colorado, ACLU of Colorado, and Freedom to Marry.
