If I still believed the lie I was taught in my childhood history classes, I wouldn't care so much about doing everything I can to get you to vote "Yes" on Amendment J. But that lie, or—giving my teachers the benefit of the doubt—that dangerous misreading of history, was that history inexorably moves from worse to better over time.
It turns out that history does not move in some smooth and linear fashion. Instead, it moves the way the political winds blow, and right now, storm clouds are gathering. Change proceeds in fits and starts; we have to fight for victories; we have to persevere in the face of electoral, legislative, and judicial backlashes; and we have to keep talking with people to make sure they understand, in their hearts and in their minds, what's at stake.
If we want same-sex couples in Colorado to continue to have the right to marry, we need to vote "Yes" on Amendment J in the November election and encourage others to do the same.
Looking at the history of same-sex couples' access to marriage in Colorado, you can see what a disconcerting rollercoaster ride it has been.
First, same-sex couples didn't have any access to marriage.
Then, we did when Boulder County Clerk Clela Rorex issued the first six marriage licenses to same-sex couples in the U.S. in 1975, but it was short-lived.
Then, we didn't again from 1975-2014 after the then-Colorado Attorney General ruled Rorex should stop.
Then, maybe we had access? In 2014, Hillary Hall issued licenses following a decision in a court case originating in Utah.
Then, we didn't after another Colorado Attorney General intervened to stop Hall from issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Then we did! The U. S. Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 made same-sex marriage legal across the U.S.
Right now same-sex couples can get married in the State of Colorado, but that could change. As I said, history isn't linear. The timeline above doesn't even include 2006, when Colorado voters endorsed Amendment 43, which held that "Only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state." That amendment is still in our state's Constitution, hiding out, never withdrawn and never invalidated, even by the Obergefell decision that gave us marriage equality throughout the nation!
The same thing happened when old laws in other states—some dating back over a century—went back into effect the minute the U. S. Supreme Court struck down its own decision in the Roe v. Wade case; those old laws were used to restrict access to reproductive care. If the Court strikes down the Obergefell decision, each state would make its own decision about marriage.
The LGBTQ+ Victory Fund says that "more than half of the U.S. states have outdated bans that would immediately go into effect after a ruling." In an instant, Colorado, and several other states, would revert to the most recent entry on the subject in our Constitution: Marriage can only be between a man and a woman.
The Roe v. Wade decision was overturned with the assertion that, because Americans did not have access to reproductive rights historically, they do not have a legitimate claim to such rights now. Well, Americans certainly didn't have access to marriage equality early in our nation's history either. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, both of whom voted against the Obergefell decision, have already gone on record saying the Supreme Court should revisit and strike down marriage equality on the same grounds.
In a public interview last month, Justice Elena Kagan suggested her colleagues on the Supreme Court could, indeed, use that argument once again. Just as they used a historical argument to strike down Roe v. Wade and its guarantee of reproductive rights, they could use a historical argument to strike down the Obergefell decision.
"That's the entirety of the majority's reasoning. Then you can say the same thing for contraception. Then you can say the same thing for interracial marriage. Then you can say the same thing for gay marriage.”
-Justice Elena Kagan
Amendment J on the Colorado ballot is our opportunity to invest in a great insurance policy if that should happen. A vote "Yes" on Amendment J is a vote to remove Amendment 43’s one-man/one-woman language from Colorado’s Constitution. Jim Obergefell, whose name is carried by the marriage equality decision, said, "That's what keeps me going, knowing I'm part of this movement, part of a history. "Be a part of the movement. Be a part of history. Vote "Yes" on Amendment J.