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Court clears initiative to ban same-sex unions

If enough signatures collected, measure can make Nov. ballot

Myung Oak Kim, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 20, 2006 at midnight

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The Colorado Supreme Court has struck down a challenge to a ballot initiative that seeks to prohibit legal recognition of same-sex unions.

If sponsors collect roughly 68,000 voter signatures by Aug. 7, the proposed constitutional amendment will make the November ballot, joining as many as three other measures related to homosexual relationships.

The court ruled late Friday against a challenge to a decision by the Title Setting Review Board to approve the measure. It is sponsored by state Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, and former Colorado Springs car dealer Will Perkins.

Their initiative is meant to counter an opposing measure that would extend legal benefits to domestic partners.

That measure is already approved for the ballot.

Pro-gay leaders argued before the Title Setting Review Board and then the Supreme Court that the Lundberg-Perkins measure is vague and violates the single-subject rule.

The initiative would say that government entities cannot "recognize a legal status similar to that of marriage."

Denver lawyer Mark Grueskin argued in the June 1 motion that the wording "is so broad and so vague that it necessarily will mean different things to different voters."

The court did not explain its decision.

Pat Steadman, a lobbyist and gay activist who filed the court challenge, said he's "disappointed that the court so quickly dismissed our arguments."

"Now I'm just hopeful that in the next five months we can convince Colorado voters to quickly dismiss this vague, dangerous initiative," Steadman said.

Lundberg said he's "heartened" by the ruling, saying the challenge "doesn't even stand the laugh test."

He said hundreds of volunteers are now collecting voter signatures.

Lundberg introduced the measure in the spring after it became clear that the domestic partnership measure would make the ballot.

Coloradans for Fairness and Equality, a pro-gay group, is collecting petition signatures for a measure designed to override the Lundberg/Perkins initiative.

That measure would amend the constitution to say that domestic partnerships are not similar to marriage.

The fourth measure seeks to amend the constitution to say that marriage is a heterosexual union.