Civil Unions Tonight!

Tonight my wife and I will be attending One Colorado's Civil Soiree and we are quite excited. We will eat, drink, dance and party with hundreds of other Colorado gay and lesbian couples who have waited for Civil Unions to finally come to Colorado. Then at midnight we will follow the crowd over to the Webb building where happy couples will apply for their Civil Unions.
And then what? Well... the next day we will probably get out of bed a little hung over and go about our day knowing that our state legally recognizes our relationship. Not as a marriage yet, but it is a step in the right direction.
We will still have to carry around our marriage certificate as proof of our rights to visit each other in the hospital. We will still file our tax returns separately, and pay inheritance tax on all of our things if one of us dies. We will still prepare back up legal documents in case anything happens to either of us, and wait for our employers to decide whether or not we can join each other's health plan. But now if we have a child we may be able to do a step-parent adoption instead of the grueling second parent adoption process. It's still a process, but rumors are a better one. People will continue to be startled when I say "my wife," and mumble to themselves, "not in this state." But we will be legally bound to each other in an almost-marriage kind of way here. That is something that we didn't have before and for that I am very grateful.
I will celebrate tonight with the community I love and I know my heart will be big, proud, bursting and gay for all of the public displays of love I will witness in these next few days. To all of the happy couples -  I wish you a very happy union and a long and loving future together.

Today Is The Day!

Today oral arguments begin at the Supreme Court against Prop 8 and a decision is expected some time in June. Then, tomorrow Edie Windsor gets her shot at knocking down DOMA. It's an exciting time. I'm obsessed with the coverage already, following all of my favorite equality organizations like HRC, GLAAD, Freedom to Marry, and United for Marriage. I've also raided my closet to find all the red I can wear this week to show my support for marriage equality.

I was living in California when Prop 8 came to be. It slapped me so hard across the face. Just when I was beginning to believe that things had made a turn towards equality there were suddenly thousands of equality-hating folks shouting through their bible verses while they put a stop to same sex marriage in San Francisco and throughout California. We felt blindsided. There I was living in a supportive LGBT community, feeling proud of who I was and the love around me when suddenly all of that was gone. It happened so fast, and was so incredibly hurtful.

But, today is another chance. Today we have an enormous amount of public support as we step into the highest court in the land. I am feeling proud of every single gay and straight ally of marriage equality who has fought hard all of these years to bring us to this opportunity. I am so proud to be a part of the LGBT community and that pride will continue no matter what the outcome.

Still, I think we have a pretty damn good chance..... Take a look at this graph that shows public opinion versus the SCOTUS ruling.

It is time for marriage equality!

Civil Unions Bill Advances to Appropriations Committee

Today was a VERY different day then what we saw back in May when the Colorado Civil Unions Bill was held back from a vote by then speaker Frank McNulty.

Today the Civil Unions Bill was back with a lot of momentum. It was supported by freshman Senator Jessie Ulibarri, Senator Pat Steadman and Senator Lucia Guzman, all of whom are openly gay, and did a fabulous job.

Those in opposition to the bill came across a little bit desperate and crazy. They exhausted the committee with long biblical rants and lots of talk about cake. But, here we are again as the bill heads to the Appropriations Committee. I have faith that we won't have a replay of last year's theatrics and that this bill will pass and become law, maybe even by Valentine's Day.

Now wouldn't that be a great gift for all of our sweeties.

The Poet of Two Moms

So far this year I haven't had much time to do some of my favorite things.... creating art, listening to podcasts while I do it, and writing to all of you, strangers or not, about life as a lesbian in Denver, CO.

Today I found this extraordinary piece by a young man by the name of Noah St. John. And although this isn't a lengthy post, this performance will hopefully fill the void of all of those things until I am back here again.