LGBT rights in Colorado

Law regarding same-sex sexual activity

In 1860 sodomy was made illegal in Colorado – then the Jefferson Territory – under its first criminal code, which indirectly prohibited sodomy by expressly recognizing English common law, under which the maximum penalty for sodomy was death. In 1861, the United States Congress created the Colorado Territory, whose government enacted a criminal code that punished sodomy, defined by English common law, with penalties ranging from one year to life in prison. In 1922 the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the ban did not prohibit fellatio, even through the court felt that the behavior was "more vile and filthy than sodomy". The law was revised in 1939 to expressly cover anal sex and fellatio, and the maximum penalty was reduced to fourteen years. In 1953, Colorado enacted a psychopathic offender law that provided for indefinite institutionalization for committing sex crimes, thus putting homosexuals in the same category as rapists and child molesters. In 1970, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that the ban also included cunnilingus.

In 1971 Colorado revised its penal code and decriminalized sodomy in cases that involved non-commercial, private acts between consenting adults. At the same time it instituted a public indecency law that banned public displays of affection between same-sex couples. The Colorado Supreme Court struck down that statute in 1974.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

In 1975, the Boulder County Clerk issued marriage licenses to several same-sex couples after the local district attorney interpreted Colorado's statutes, which used the phrase "any two persons", to be gender-neutral with respect to marriage. The state attorney general issued a contrary opinion that those marriages were invalid. When one of those married in Boulder tried to use it to sponsor his husband for immigration purposes, he lost his case, Adams v. Howerton, in federal court.

In 1996, Governor Roy Romer vetoed HB 96-1291 which would have banned recognition of same-sex marriages. In his notice to the legislature, Governor Romer wrote "It is one thing to believe, as I do, that marriage is for the union of a man and woman. It is quite another to believe that committed same sex relationships do not exist and should not be recognized by society."

In 2006, a state referendum added language to the Colorado Constitution that restricted marriage and common law marriage to couples of different sexes, without mentioning civil unions or domestic partnerships.

In April 2009, Colorado enacted a Designated Beneficiaries law, effective July 1, that allowed anyone to make a same-sex partner the beneficiary of insurance, inheritance, hospital visitations, funeral arrangements and death benefits, and other important matters.

In 2011 and 2012, state lawmakers attempted but failed to pass an act formally recognizing civil unions, though Governor John Hickenlooper endorsed the legislation in his 2012 State of the State address.

In March 2013, both houses of the Democratic-controlled state legislature passed legislation establishing civil unions that provide rights comparable to those provided opposite-sex married couples and Governor Hickenlooper signed the bill into law on March 21, 2013. The law went into effect on May 1, 2013.

Governor Hickenlooper signed a bill permitting joint state income tax filing for civil union and out-of-state same-sex married couples.

On February 19, 2014, nine same-sex couples, some unmarried and some married in other jurisdictions, filed a lawsuit in state court challenging the state's definition of marriage and arguing that civil unions have created a "second-class level of citizenship" for gays and lesbians. The suit, McDaniel-Miccio v. Hickenlooper, named Governor Hickenlooper and the Denver City Clerk as defendants. The clerk has expressed support for same-sex marriage. Attorney General John Suthers, a Republican, announced he would defend the state constitution's definition of marriage. On October 6, Suthers asked the Tenth Circuit to dismiss his appeal and lift the stay after the U.S. Supreme Court left in place as binding precedent other Tenth Circuit decisions holding bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional in Oklahoma and Utah. Same-sex marriage became legal on October 7, 2014 after the Colorado Supreme Court lifted the last legal barriers and Attorney General John Suthers told clerks around the state to begin issuing licenses.

U.S. Government Recognition of 1975 Same-Sex Marriage in Boulder

In 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services reversed its decision from 1975 and granted permanent resident status to Anthony Sullivan, based on his marriage to Richard Adams in Boulder on April 21, 1975.

Adoption and parenting

A single person can adopt in Colorado. Second-parent adoptions are permitted under state law, though the process is more elaborate and expensive than that required of married couples.

Catholic adoption agencies do not place children either with single persons or with same-sex couples and have said they will not do so if the state enacts civil unions.

Discrimination

In Colorado, it has been illegal to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, and credit since the category "sexual orientation" was added to the state's Public Accommodations Law in 2008. The bill was controversial and following its passage by the legislature opponents waged a media campaign that failed to persuade Governor Bill Ritter to withhold his signature.

On November 3, 1992, Colorado voters approved Initiative 2, an initiated constitutional amendment which added language to the state constitution that prohibited the state and all of its subdivisions from allowing "homosexual, lesbian or bisexual orientation, conduct, practices or relationships" to provide the basis for any "claim any minority status, quota preferences, protected status or claim of discrimination." In 1994, the Colorado Supreme Court found the amendment unconstitutional. In 1996, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Romer v. Evans that the amendment, because it "allows discrimination against homosexuals and prevents the state from protecting them", was "motivated by animus towards homosexuals" and violated their rights under the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

In 2013, a gay couple who had married in Massachusetts tried to purchase a wedding cake at a bakery in Lakewood, Colorado, and were refused. They sued to force the bakery to provide them with the same services as other customers and on December 6 Administrative Law Judge Robert N. Spencer ruled for the plaintiffs in Craig v. Masterpiece Cakeshop. He dismissed the bakery's claim that requiring the business to provide the service violated its owner's rights to free speech or religious expression.

Hate crime

The state's hate crimes law has provided protection based on both sexual orientation and gender identity or expression since 2001. In 2009, in a case thought to be "the first in which a hate crimes law was applied in a murder trial where the victim was transgender", a jury in Greeley, Colorado, convicted a man of first-degree murder and found that it was a hate crime under Colorado law.

Conversion therapy

On March 10, 2015, the Colorado House of Representatives approved 35–29 a bill banning sexual orientation change efforts (conversion therapy) with minors. However the bill failed to pass through the Colorado Senate.

On March 17, 2016, the House voted 35-29 in favor of a bill sponsored by Dominick Moreno which would outlaw the use of conversion therapy on LGBT minors. The bill was postponed indefinitely in a Senate committee in a 3-2 vote on April 11, 2016.