June 26, 2013
Colorado’s ban on marriage equality puts state at a moral and competitive disadvantage after ruling
Statement of ACLU of Colorado Executive Director Nathan Woodliff-Stanley on the Supreme Court’s ruling on the ACLU lawsuit, Windsor v. United States, invalidating the discriminatory policies of the Defense of Marriage Act.
“Today is a great day for equality and the beginning of the end for official discrimination against lesbians and gay men. The Defense of Marriage Act is the last federal law on the books that mandates discrimination against gay people just because they're gay, and today the Supreme Court took down its core.
“In Colorado, we recently made important progress by allowing same-sex couples to enter into civil unions. But civil unions are not the same as marriage, and won't qualify couples for all the federal benefits that marriage would. Today’s decision only holds some promise for those same-sex couples living in Colorado who married elsewhere: the federal government will recognize their marriage in certain instances. But this decision does not allow same-sex couples to marry in Colorado and it does not change the fact that many married same-sex couples living in Colorado are not considered married by our state.
“All loving and committed couples in Colorado should have the right to marry. The impediment is Colorado’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, which is a relic of the same discriminatory sentiment that produced DOMA. It is unjust and, after today, it puts our state at both a moral and competitive disadvantage against states that recognize full marriage equality. The ACLU of Colorado is committed to ending our state’s ban on marriage equality, so that all Coloradans can marry.”
