Denver, CO – One Colorado, the state’s leading advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) Coloradans and their families, celebrates the bipartisan passage of the Respect for Marriage Act (HR22-8404) in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, July 19th.

Representatives from across the United States showed their widespread support for marriage equality, passing the bill with a vote of 267 to 157, including 47 Republicans. Of Colorado’s seven congresspeople in the House, four voted in favor and three voted against the bill along party lines. Disappointingly, Colorado’s three Republican congressional delegates, Representatives Buck, Boebert, and Lamborn were not amongst the 47 bipartisan Republican votes affirming the LGBTQ+ community’s right to marriage across all 50 states.

“We congratulate the House of Representatives for moving the Respect for Marriage Act forward at this pivotal moment,” said Nadine Bridges (she, her, hers), One Colorado Executive Director. “We want to acknowledge our pro-equality Colorado Representatives Crow, DeGette, Neguse and Perlmutter who showed their commitment to LGBTQ+ Coloradans and their families by voting ‘YAY’. With strong bipartisan support, and an overwhelming public bipartisan supermajority in favor of this legislation, we are now looking towards the U.S. Senate, including our pro-equality Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, to vote and pass this bill.”

The latest survey from PRRI this year shows nearly seven out of ten Americans (68%) support marriage equality, believing it to be a fundamental right that must be protected. Key provisions of the bill include:

• Repealing the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act, passed in 1996. Currently unenforceable by the Supreme Court’s 2013 Windsor v. United States and 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges rulings, DOMA remains a lingering, legal threat to full LGBTQ+ equality while on the books.
• Standardizing “place of celebration” for federal marriage equality benefits.
• Affirming that all 50 states recognize public acts, records and proceedings such as adoptions and divorces.
• Codifying the federal protections conferred by the Obergefell and Windsor rulings.

One Colorado continues to collaborate with local, state and national pro-equality partners to fortify protections in Colorado and at the federal level for LGBTQ+ Coloradans and their families.

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