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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina s congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Myorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Poll: Coloradans Support Legalizing Civil Unions

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Monday, February 21, 2011   

DENVER - Gay and lesbian couples from around Colorado are gathering at the State Capitol today. They are asking for lawmakers to give them the same rights provided to other committed couples. Those rights are found in the Colorado Civil Union Act, recently introduced by Sen. Pat Steadman. It would allow legal partnerships between same-sex couples, similar to those currently enjoyed by spouses.

Shawna Kemppainen hopes the law will pass. Her longtime partner has muscular dystrophy, and she worries she won't be able to make important decisions in a medical emergency.

"There are a lot of responsibilities and protections that we think are just fair for gay and lesbian couples to be able to have, but it's about much more than that. It's really the way that our love can be fairly recognized, as well."

Three recent surveys - including one conducted earlier this month by Public Policy Polling (PPP) - found that more than 70 percent of Coloradans support legal rights for same-sex couples such as those found in civil unions.

One Colorado Executive Director Brad Clark says that's a big shift since 2006, when the state passed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

"There's been a sea change in public attitude over the last several years. This shouldn't be a Democratic or Republican issue. Issues involving basic fundamental legal protection should be something we should all agree on."

Eighty organizations representing more than half a million Coloradans have formed a coalition in support of the Colorado Civil Unions Act. It includes the GLBT Center of Colorado and also church, business, labor and civil rights groups.

Kemppainen calls the relationship with her partner "the relationship of a lifetime." She says the civil unions law will help them care for and take responsibility for each other - the same as other couples do.

"This is critical way for the United States and for Colorado to say you are as good as. That you count."

The PPP survey can be found at http://coloradoindependent.com/category/lgbt-issues.


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