Civil unions follow a familiar path, but supporters note changing circumstances

A bill for civil unions passed its first 2012 test in a Colorado Senate committee Feb. 15 by 5-2 vote – identical to the support a similar bill received on that committee last year before it passed the Senate and died in a House committee.

For many in the audience, the five-hour hearing to a largely-favorable audience in the Capitol’s Old Supreme Court Chambers was déjà vu.

So was the vote of GOP committee member Sen. Ellen Roberts, one of three Senate Republicans who voted for civil unions in 2011 and joined the panel’s four Democrats in voting for Sen. Steadman’s bill again.

Republican support for the bill is crucial since a party-line House Judiciary Committee vote killed last year’s bill, and Republicans control the House by one vote along with each House committee.

Rep. Mark Ferrandino, a Democrat who was the bill’s sponsor in the House in 2011, told Out Front Colorado in December he was looking for a Republican House member to carry the bill. So far no House Republican has publicly agreed to carry it, nor has a GOP House Judiciary Committee members switched position.

But statewide LGBT advocacy organization One Colorado’s deputy director Jess Woodrum said that though she doesn’t know if this year’s effort will be more successful, some important circumstances are different.

“There are a lot of factors in play because we’re in an election year and districts have changed” since new maps were established in late 2011, Woodrum said.

Some House Republicans who voted against the bill have different constituents now, and at least one Republican member, Rep. B.J. Nikkel, has decided not to run for re-election, possibly freeing up concerns that a vote for civil unions would spark a primary challenge from the Right.

Woodrum said that growing public support for relationship recognition, a stronger call for support from Gov. John Hickenlooper this year, and more Republican groups vocally supporting civil unions could also influence legislators in 2012.

Yet regardless of that, Woodrum said, it’s a worthwhile fight.

“Even if we thought everything is exactly the same, I’d still want to push year after year,” Woodrum said. “Sen. Steadman has vowed to keep bringing it back and we’re going to support him. Every time we have an opportunity to speak we see progress.”

Another development that did not take place in 2011 is a Denver City Council proclamation favoring the civil unions bill, issued at a Feb. 13 council meeting on the urging of Denver’s LGBT Commission.

The measure, urging the state legislature to enact civil unions, passed 12-0 with one abstention from Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz, who said it isn’t the city’s business to vote on state law where council members have no jurisdiction.

But other council members, who acknowledged the state legislature is likely not looking for Denver council members’ input, voted for the measure anyway. City Council President Chris Nevitt said the council as well as Mayor Michael Hancock’s office support the bill.

The proclamation was brought to the Feb. 15 committee meeting by out city council member Robin Kniech when she testified for the bill. The legislation would offer many basic rights and protections to same-sex couples that heterosexual married couples have, but a provision in the bill describes it as distinct from marriage.

Steadman, who is openly gay, told the Senate committee that civil unions are separate and unequal to marriage – yet are still crucial legal protections for unmarried adults.

The bill “clearly recites what I consider discriminatory language and I did recite it again, because it’s (required by) our state Constitution,” Steadman said to the committee just before the vote.

Colorado voters approved a state constitutional amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as one man and one woman, preventing the legislature from passing a law to enact same-sex marriages. Supporters of civil unions, including One Colorado, argue that civil unions remain within the legislature’s purview.

But several conservatives argued civil unions are one step closer to same-sex marriage and an encroachment of their religious liberties. Judiciary Committee Republican Sen. Kevin Lundberg said senators received about 30,000 postcards from voters opposing the bill this year, doubting that polls showing majorities favor civil unions are accurate.

Lundberg called civil unions the “first step” toward same-sex marriage before voting against the bill. “It’s not a given that this is simply a matter of justice,” Lundberg said. As the hearing wound down and the panel prepared to vote on the bill, Out Judiciary Committee member Guzman’s voice cracked when she thanked Steadman for his work.

Guzman offered an olive branch to civil unions opponents, saying she has respect for the Catholic Church and others who hold to their doctrines.

Sen. Angela Giron, a Democrat from Pueblo, thanked the Catholic Church for teaching her the value of social justice – a value that drives her support for civil unions.