Out Front Colorado: The 1990s - Hate State
Amendment 2 – Now What?
November 11, 1992: Staff writer Sam Gallegos: “It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. Even the exit polls taken minutes after the voting was done on Tuesday evening showed that Amendment No. 2 was solidly going down in defeat. The party at Mammoth Gardens was going to be the lesbian and gay event of the season.”[1]
Amendment 2 made it illegal for any government entity in Colorado to provide basic discrimination protections for gay men and lesbians and invalidated any protections already in existence.
The confusingly worded amendment led some to believe that they were voting in favor of the gay and lesbian community by voting yes, when in fact, they were voting to deny basic protections. But Gallegos deconstructed the “No on Two” campaign and found several problems, including a failure to counter the anti-gay, pro-Amendment-2 contingent that cited Biblical verses in their desire to deny protections to gay men and lesbians, to engage and educate smaller rural towns, and to address community concerns about the progress of the “No on Two” campaign.[2]
But although Amendment 2 was passed by almost 100,000 votes, it never took effect.
The Colorado Legal Initiatives Project (CLIP), which was founded specifically to organize a legal challenge if the amendment should pass, already had a plan in place. CLIP filed an injunction and then a lawsuit, and, in one of the most notable LGBT legal battles in history, took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The landmark case of Romer v. Evans was decided in favor of the plaintiffs, and Amendment 2 was ruled unconstitutional in 1996.[3] Colorado’s gay and lesbian activists finally had the celebration that they were denied four years earlier.
May 22, 1996: Publisher Greg Montoya: “Monday, May 20, will forever remain a day of momentous victory for gay and lesbians in the United States. Amendment 2 is dead.”[4]
Matthew Shepard – Peace
October 21, 1998: News editor John Mandes: “More than 1,000 mourners attended Matthew Shepard’s funeral Oct. 16 while across the street a protester held a sign, “Fag in Hell” – the final chapter of Shepard’s life on earth.”[5]
Matthew Shepard was not from Colorado, but he came to Denver to visit friends and socialize, and many who lived in the city – and who gathered at the popular gay neighborhood coffee house, Diedrich’s – had seen him there.
Mandes: “Matt and I weren’t close friends, but I knew him. I knew him as many folks did. As a sweet guy who loved to sit at the bar at Diedrich’s at Ninth and Downing, sip coffee, read and talk. We said hello on several occasions and had brief conversations. I never knew Matt Shepard’s favorite flavor of ice cream. In fact, I don’t know if he even liked ice cream. I never got the chance to find out. I knew Matt, though. I knew his face, the sound of his voice. It is a face I’ll never see again, a voice whose sound will never again reach my ears.”[6]
Matthew Shepard died in a Fort Collins, Colo., hospital on October 12, 1998, from injuries inflicted in a brutal assault on October 7 outside of Laramie, Wyo., where Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming.
His parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard of Casper, Wyo., went on to found the Matthew Shepard Foundation, with offices in Casper and Denver, with the goal of erasing hate and fighting for LGBT equality. Over the next decade, Out Front Colorado partnered with the Foundation on a variety of fundraising events and continues to do so. Judy Shepard remains a familiar figure in the Colorado LGBT community, which considers Matthew Shepard one of its own. <comments />
References:
- ↑ Sam Gallegos, "What Went Wrong?", Out Front Colorado, November 11, 1992.
- ↑ Sam Gallegos, "What Went Wrong?", Out Front Colorado, November 11, 1992.
- ↑ Out Front Colorado, May 22, 1996.
- ↑ Greg Montoya, "From the Publisher," Out Front Colorado, May 22, 1996.
- ↑ John Mandes, "Matt Shepard mourned around U.S.", Out Front Colorado, October 21, 1998.
- ↑ John Mandes, "Shepard & his flock," Out Front Colorado, October 21, 1998.
