SALON

Tuesday, May 8, 2012 8:17 PM UTC

Colorado civil union backers make deadline push

By

Topics: From the Wires,

DENVER (AP) — Dozens of civil unions supporters rallied outside the Colorado Capitol on Tuesday, directing chants of “Let them vote!” to Republicans who control the House and are divided over the issue.

The last-minute drama comes during the final days of the legislative session, where a civil unions measure that proponents say has enough support to become law faces a pair of key deadlines.

Gay rights advocates are nervous Republican opponents will use procedural tactics to run out the clock and kill the bill.

Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty, who opposes the plan, blames Democrats for bringing the legislation forward too late, creating a “manufactured crisis at the end of the session.”

Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman, a gay lawmaker who successfully carried the bill in the Senate, told a crowd of supporters “Keep your fingers crossed.”

He added, “All of Colorado is watching, and we’re waiting for the outcome that will offer liberty and justice, equality and fairness to all of Colorado.”

The bill must have floor debate and preliminary vote Tuesday or the proposal dies. Lawmakers adjourn the session at midnight Wednesday, and the final vote must happen before then.

If passed, it would underscore the dramatic shift in opinion in a state where voters banned gay marriage in 2006, while rejecting domestic partnerships for same-sex couples that same year. Two Republicans have joined Democrats in passing the bill out of two House committees.

The bill needs to clear a final committee Tuesday afternoon, and at least one Republican there, Rep. Cheri Gerou, has pledged support. That would be enough to get the bill to the full House for debate and initial vote later Tuesday.

Republicans have a 33-32 voting edge in the House, but the bill has enough votes to clear the chamber. The Democratic-led Senate already passed the bill.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper supports the bill. If the legislation passes, Colorado would join more than a dozen states that have either civil unions or allow gay marriage, including several that moved to add the protections this year.

The legislation would give same-sex couples rights similar to marriage, including enhanced inheritance and parental rights, and the ability to be involved in partner’s medical decisions.

Colorado’s debate comes on a week when rights for gay couples are in the national spotlight. North Carolina voters were going to decide Tuesday on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. And Vice President Joe Biden said over the weekend he is “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex married couples getting the same rights at heterosexual married couples.

The timing of the Colorado bill in the final hours of the legislative session has supporters worried. House Republicans control when bills are scheduled and that gives them leeway over bills they disagree with.

McNulty has accused Democrats of waiting with the bill to force a standoff for political gain.

“To me the Democrats have done both the proponents of this bill and opponents of this bill a great disservice by politicizing it,” he said. “We all know that it’s a heated public policy issue to begin with and with the Senate Democrats sitting on it for 110 days, they’ve really turned it into a manufactured crisis here at the end of session.”

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, the Democrats’ leader in the House and a gay lawmaker sponsoring the bill there, disagreed with McNulty, saying the reason the bill took so long in the Senate is because supporters were trying to get Republican support. Ferrandino said he tried to persuade a Republican to carry the legislation in the House, and potential supporters said they needed more time.

“The manufactured crisis is one he’s manufacturing,” Ferrandino said of McNulty.

Ferrandino said he wants the bill be debated on its merits.

“I want it to be either passed or killed by the vote, not by shenanigans being played,” he said.

Republican lawmakers are expected to offer amendments to the bill if it reaches the floor.

“I know that folks have concerns about the ramifications of a bill like this on churches and religious institutions,” McNulty. “I certainly understand that. And the other thing that folks have concerns about is the effect that this will have on marriage and I suspect that those are some things that folks are working on.”

___

Find Ivan Moreno on Twitter: http://twitter.com/IvanJourno

___

Online:

Senate Bill 2: http://goo.gl/GR9y4

More Ivan Moreno.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations