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Loading ...Straight man promotes Gay Marriage In Colorado
02.10.2009 10:30am EST
(Denver, Colorado) A straight Colorado man is promoting a ballot measure that would allow same-sex marriage in the state.
Stu Allen, 23, tells The Rocky Mountain News that gay couples should have the same rights that he and his girlfriend of seven years would have if they got married.“I don’t think there should be gender-specific laws when it comes to marriage in Colorado – or anywhere,” Allen told the paper. “It seems like a civil rights issue.”
His ballot measure would overturn Colorado’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage that was approved by voters in 2006 and would make marriage gender neutral.
Allen told The News that when he began researching what is required to get a measure on the ballot he found there had to be two sponsors. He contacted his high school friend Hallie Atencio who readily agreed.
“I wholeheartedly believe in what he’s trying to do,” Atencio, 22, told The News. “I think we can create some change.”
The proposed ballot measure has been filed with the state. Tuesday Allen will meet with officials for a “review and comment session” that is required before an issue gets on the ballot. The state would then have to approve the wording on the measure before Allen can begin collecting signatures.
In addition to banning same-sex marriage in 2006, voters the same year rejected another ballot issue that would have given same-sex couples many of the rights of marriage including property inheritance rights and the power to make medical and funeral arrangements.
Allen’s gay marriage measure is opposed by supporters of the ban on same-sex marriage.
“The voters have already spoken about the direction they would like to see our state go regarding the marriage issue,” state Sen. Mike Kopp (R) told The Rocky Mountain News.
Marriage is supposed to be a significantly strong and magical bond between 2 people. It should not matter what their genders are. Same-sex or heteroal-sexual. 2 people showing that they will always be there for eachother no matter what happens in life. I am proud of who I am, and the life that I am living. I am not hurting anybody in anyway, shape, of form by being a lesbian so Government, Poloticians, Churches back off. Swallow your own poison for once instead trying to shove it down everybody elses throat. Since when were we suppose to worry about other peoples sexual preference’s.I support you Stuart Allen ALL-THE WAY.
I am so happy that there are straight allys speaking out for the glbt community. This Saturday February 21st is Freedom to Marry Day in Fort Collins at Olde Town Square… I hope that there will be people there from all walks of life who feel that equality is vital to our democratic society.
@ RJLIEGER:
Dude, you’d better change dealers … whatever you’re smokin’ is like rotting your BRAIN.
What’s your issue, anyway?
Closeted?
Can’t get a date?
Disappointed in love?
(AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!)
Tiny peen?
(try losing weight and trimming your bush … it can add up to two inches … free tip from your friendly neighborhood queer)
Cummon, everybody … group hug for RJ …
HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUG!!!
Cheers,
Bud Burgoon-Clark
happily married faggot in San Diego
No social conservative is that ignorant. Well meaning, and absent him actually acquiring scientific knowledge, we’ll just refer to him as incredibly ignorant. Hey, straight guy, wake up……you were given federal protections in 1998 in the public and private sectors. No need to rollover or acquiesce to the LGBT community for fear of unlawful dismissal. The guy is bi, if anything. Why do you pull us into your paranoid delusions?
Oh, I can promise you, he’s very straight
My twin sister has been dating him for over seven years. He just really REALLY cares about things, and when his heart is set on an issue, he will not let it rest until he has seen it through. Fighting the good fight!
He’s not straight. He’s either duplicitously neurotic or an incredibly ignorant social conservative.
These initiatives always carry more weight when those sponsoring them have nothing directly to gain from them. Bless that boy! Equal rights cannot be subject to the whim of the majority.
Please leave me alone in a room with Mike Kopp for abotu 10 minutes. Just remeber the walls were that color when I went in.
Go, Stu!
We should start filing these initiatives in every state.
Mr Stu Allen, if you ever come to Ontario Canada my home is your home, my family is yours and I would welcome you with a red carpet!!
Colorado is home to James Dobson’s Focus on the Family. I wish Stu all the luck in that territory.
I wonder if he’s a wedding planner or a florist?:-)
Maybe we need an initiative that would change the process requiring that if you vote to take away a right, you have to give up one too.
Wouldn’t that be fun? The bigots would be forced to choose…do I keep my right to marry my 3rd cousin or give that up to discriminate? Do I keep my right to have an ugly house so the couple next door with the great landscaping can get married?
It really is ridiculous that we vote on these things in the first place, and in CO thanks to these nice people we may have to have our rights voted on again. I guess its necessary and we should thank them, but it is infuriating to watch uneducated fools voting on my rights.
“The voters have already spoken about the direction they would like to see our state go regarding the marriage issue”… Doesn’t mean they can’t change their minds.
Yay for our hetero allies to take up the fight. Shows that it isn’t just for us when others join the fight.
Sounds like a nice guy. He has no idea the evil ignorant forces he will have to fight to do this. It always kills me when people tell us the voters have already decided the issue. What if slavery, the right of women to vote or, civil rights act of the 1960s had been left to the popular vote?
Tom in L.B.