As the clock strikes midnight Wednesday morning, same-sex couples in Colorado will finally be able to obtain a civil union and have it be recognized by the state. In addition, if couples already have a civil union, it will be recognized in Colorado at midnight.
Colorado's first openly-gay Speaker of the House, Mark Ferrandino (D-Denver), told KDVR that he too would be applying for a civil union.
“I kept saying it wasn’t a matter of if,” Ferrandino said of the passage of civil unions in Colorado. “It was a matter of when.”
The Denver Office of Clerk and Recorder has posted an announcement on their website that they will be open from 12:01 - 3 a.m. on May 1 to issue the state's first civil union licenses. The atrium will be open to the public beginning at 10:30 p.m. In Boulder, the office of clerk and recorder will also be open from 12:01 - 2 a.m. to issue licenses.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is expected to attend and preside over some of the first civil ceremonies in the city's Wellington E. Webb Building at 201 W. Colfax Ave.
The state's largest LGBT rights group One Colorado is hosting a "Civil Soiree" in Denver to celebrate the passage of the bill, to which tickets have already sold out.
“We want to honor the hard work and tireless dedication of the thousands of One Colorado supporters who made this moment possible — and that’s what The Civil Soirée is all about!” director Brad Clark said in an email.
Civil unions were signed into law last month, though it was just seven years ago that Colorado voters banned gay marriage from the state's Constitution.
A recent poll from Public Policy Polling however suggests that voter sentiments may be changing.
The poll shows that Coloradans are now in support of gay marriage by a 50/38 margin, and voters under the age of 30 support it by a 74/17 margin. Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said they would support same-sex marriage.
While civil unions grant gay couples rights similar to marriage, such as hospital visitation rights, parental rights, and personal property transfers, a couple's civil union may not necessarily be recognized outside of Colorado.
Colorado became the sixth state to pass civil unions. Currently, nine states and the District of Columbia give marriage licenses to same-sex couples and three states have pending same-sex marriage laws.
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