Colo. governor signs civil unions bill

Gov. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday signed a bill that extends civil unions to same-sex couples in his state.

“There is no excuse that people shouldn’t have all the same rights,” he said before he signed the bill into law at the History Colorado Center in Denver. “It’s the beginning of the country changing. A change has gotten here. It’s going to keep going. It’s not going to stop in Colorado, but I’d like to think this is a crucial point.”

The Denver Post reported state Sen. Pat Steadman, who re-introduced the civil unions bill earlier this year with fellow state Sen. Lucia Guzman after it stalled in the legislature in 2012, was among those who attended the ceremony.

The measure passed in the state House of Representatives last week by a 39-26 vote. It comes two decades after Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment that prohibited the state from enacting laws that ban anti-gay discrimination.

The U.S. Supreme Court struck it down in 1996.

“With this signature that’s about to occur on this bill today, Gov. Hickenlooper will make sure that for once and for all, LGBT Coloradans are not strangers to our laws,” Steadman said.