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 Denver Lesbians Seeking Marriage License
Arrested
by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff
Posted: September 25, 2007 - 11:00 am ET
(Denver, Colorado) A lesbian couple has been
arrested after refusing to leave the city clerk's office in Denver when they
were turned down for a marriage license.
"We're sorry for the disturbance, but we won't leave until we're
provided with the same rights as everyone else," the Rocky Mountain News
quotes Kate Burns, 44, as telling clerk Stephanie O'Malley.
Burns and partner Sheila Schroeder, 43, then
began a sit-in.
O'Malley called police. The women were allowed to
remain in the office until closing time and were then arrested.
They were handcuffed and led out of the
building. They were charged with trespassing and released.
Last year Colorado voters approved an amendment
to the state constitution limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples. A
second proposed amendment that would have created a statewide domestic partner
registry was rejected.
The city of Denver and two other municipalities
in the state have their own registries but offer none of the benefits or rights
of marriage under state law.
Burns and Schroeder said they wanted to put the
issue of marriage and invited the media as they applied Monday for a license.
Once you get kicked in the seat, you have to get back up and you have
to give it another try," Schroeder said, telling the Rocky Mountain News
that she and Burns want nothing more than the same rights as other members of
her family.
"I sit across the dinner table from my parents and my two brothers and
my sister and their spouses and I see no difference between us," she told
the news "There isn't any difference between their commitment to
their spouses and the commitment Kate and I have."
©365Gay.com 2007
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