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Phil Nash said watching the election returns come in was "one of the most awful feelings." In 1992, voters passed Amendment 2 - a ballot measure that barred any Colorado community from passing laws to protect homosexuals. And it was our first statement." 1992: Amendment 2 “All the differences in our community at that time were set aside to gather together to be noticed and to make a statement," Layne said. "I guess we were very proud that everyone came out of their little circles and little comfort zones to make a statement.
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Layne says it felt good to leave the gay bar scene behind, and be visible. 1976: Denver's first Pride paradeĪctivist and entertainer Christopher Sloan - better known by the stage name “Christi Layne” - remembers that first parade well. Go to Boulder, they do that kind of thing there," Rorex said.īefore long, the state's attorney general stepped in and stopped Rorex. "The county clerk said to them, well we don’t do that kind of thing here.
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In 1975, Colorado's statute was blind to the sex of marriage license applicants. Boulder Clerk and Recorder Clela Rorex took advantage of that to issue licenses to six same-sex couples, including one from Colorado Springs that unsuccessfully tried to get a license in El Paso County.
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She issued a total of six licenses before Attorney General J.D. In 1975, Rorex stumbled into history when two men asked her for a marriage license, which she granted. There were not other ways for most LGBT people to get together with the exception of occasionally some informal social groups.” 1975: Marriage licenses issued to gay couples Clela Rorex, who served as Boulder County Clerk & Recorder in the 1970s, stands outside the clerk's offices in Boulder on July 2, 2014. it was a fairly oppressive circumstance. “They were kind of seedy places, not particularly fun," she said. "People sort of behaved themselves when the police were there. In 1939, The Pit opened - it was the city's first gay bar. Bars were safe havens, but could also be dangerous, said Glenda Russell, a psychologist and historian in Boulder.
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Today that would be considered a hate crime and those people would have gone to jail," Nash remembered.ĭenver's "curious and fascinating" LGBT history was recently chronicled by Out Front, a Denver-based online magazine that "focuses on gay pride, LGBT news and gay editorials." Check out Out Front's full timeline on their website, and scroll down for a few highlights. We were able to get the judge to force them to pay restitution. By the time the police got there - which was 45 minutes later - and this on East Colfax Avenue - there was a crowd in the streets who just pointed to the car and said ‘it’s them!’ The police did arrest them and the judge was just going to let them go … for just kids fooling around and having a good time downtown. There were people inside the building at the time this was going on. “There was a time when some young men in a car were driving back and forth in front of the center with a pellet gun and shooting out the windows. And Nash can hardly believe it, as he remembers what it was like to be gay in Denver nearly four decades ago when he worked at the Gay Community Center in the city. Back in the late 1970s, he wrote a presentation for the Carter Administration in which he argued that the government should legally recognize same-sex unions. In the eyes of Phil Nash, a longtime gay rights activist, Denver has come a long way in the last 36 years. An early gay rights protest in Denver on the Capitol lawn.