Colorado Democratic Representative Mark Ferrandino says he’ll reintroduce a bill to create civil unions in the state after New York legalized same sex marriages earlier this month. A similar bill this year died in a House committee on a party-line vote.
“What gave some hope out of New York was that the Republican-controlled Senate—which is similar in size to our House and also in terms to the split between Democrats and Republicans—they allowed it to come to the floor,” he said.
The civil union legislation passed in the Senate but stalled in the House. Representative Mark Ferrandino says it all came down to a party line vote in the House Judiciary Committee.
Republican House Speaker Frank McNulty told the Denver Post that Colorado Democrats want to use the bill as a wedge issue in an election year. But backers say they are only looking for fairness.