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发帖数: 4174 | 1 Posted on Advocate.com March 08, 2011
Colo. Advances Civil Unions Bill
By Sunnivie Brydum
GUTIERREZ STEADMAN X390 | ADVOCATE.COM
Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee vice-chair senator Lucía Guzmán (left)
and senator Pat Steadman
In a bipartisan vote of 6-3, the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee on
Monday approved a civil unions bill, more than 18 years after state voters
passed an amendment barring antidiscrimination protections for gays and
lesbians — one that was overturned four years later by the U.S. Supreme
Court in the landmark case Romer v. Evans.
The bill now moves on to the state senate appropriations committee, where it
will undergo further revision and debate before being voted on by the full
senate.
The bill, introduced last month by openly gay and Democratic senator Pat
Steadman of Denver, offers many of the legal rights and responsibilities
conferred by marriage, though civil unions as proscribed in the bill, SB-172
, differ from marriage as required by Colorado’s Constitution, which voters
amended in 2006 to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
The bill does provide numerous legal protections for gay and lesbian couples
and their families, including inheritance and survivorship rights, medical
decision-making, and clarifications on parental responsibility for children
born within and outside of a civil union, including establishing step-parent
adoption procedures as applicable to married couples. The bill also
provides a legal framework for the orderly dissolution of civil unions,
similar to the state language regulating divorce.
All five committee Democrats were joined by Republican senator Ellen Collins
of southwestern Colorado in their support of the bill. In her closing
statements, Collins commended the familial protections included in the bill
and cited her experience working in family services, where she said she saw
no difference in the love and commitment shown by gay and lesbian parents
than that shown by heterosexual parents.
Senator Steadman said of Monday’s vote in favor of civil unions: “I’m
elated. This is a very significant event for me personally, and for my
constituents, and for the advancement of our laws in Colorado, to make sure
that they work equally for everyone.”
Supportive testimony for the state senate bill drew 27 witnesses
representing a varied collection of citizens from across the state,
including activists, business organizations, and religious clergy
representatives.
Testimony in opposition to the bill saw 19 witnesses, including Rosina Kovar
, whose testimony was the most provocative of the hearing. In addition to
quoting Joseph Stalin, comparing “homosexual fornication and sodomy” to
Big Tobacco, and
describing the physical composition of the anus, Kovar claimed that this
bill would lead to mandated sex education in elementary schools. “If you
introduce sexual education to kids [between the ages of 5 and 12], they won
’t learn compassion,” she said.
Republican senators Bill Lundberg, Steve King, and Mark Scheffel voted
against the bill. Of those voting no, Lundberg, the ranking Republican
committee member, was the only legislator to speak. His commentary focused
on the similarities between civil unions and marriage, arguing that SB-172
essentially creates a “carbon copy” of marriage.
“Make no mistake,” Lundberg said in his closing comments, “this bill will
change the institution of marriage for Colorado.”
Judiciary Committee vice-chair and out lesbian Sen. Lucía Guzmán expressed
her hope in the bill’s success at Monday's hearing. “I’m cautiously
optimistic,” Guzmán said. “I think the more we are able to speak to
people on both sides, the more
people might understand that this is a justice issue, that it’s a legal
issue.”
For some members of Colorado’s LGBT community, civil unions don’t go far
enough. Tom Carllon and Gabe Martinez, a gay couple who were married in
California prior to Proposition 8, testified in opposition to the bill,
arguing that civil unions only serve to confuse voters about the rights
actually offered to LGBT couples. Marriage equality is the ultimate goal,
Carllon stated, and anything less is “just the crumbs, not the cake.”
“Civil unions will be an excuse not to upgrade us to marriage,” Carllon
testified. “The public will forever equate civil unions as marriage, or,
less hopefully, just ‘good enough’ as marriage." | g********d
发帖数: 4174 | 2 a gay couple who were married in
California prior to Proposition 8, testified in opposition to the bill,
arguing that civil unions only serve to confuse voters about the rights
actually offered to LGBT couples. Marriage equality is the ultimate goal,
Carllon stated, and anything less is “just the crumbs, not the cake.”
妈呀，什么人都有。 |
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