Clela Rorex, who issued 1st same-sex marriage licenses, dies

Rorex was a newly elected clerk in Boulder County, Colorado, when a gay couple denied a marriage license elsewhere sought her help in March 1975.

BOULDER, Colo. — Clela Rorex, a former Colorado county clerk considered a pioneer in the gay rights movement for being the first public official to issue a same-sex marriage license in 1975, has died. She was 78.

Rorex died Sunday of complications from recent surgery at a hospice care facility in Longmont, the Daily Camera reported.

Rorex was a newly elected Boulder County clerk when a gay couple denied a marriage license elsewhere sought her help in March 1975. She told The Associated Press in 2014 that she saw a parallel with the women’s movement and found nothing in state law preventing it.

The then-31-year-old agreed and, in the end, issued a total of six licenses to gay couples before Colorado’s attorney general at the time ordered her to stop.

State and federal law didn’t recognize gay marriage at the time. Rorex recalled that she had little public support and didn’t challenge the attorney general.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/clela-rorex-who-issued-1st-same-sex-marriage-licenses-dies-n1296455


Post ID: d72912ae-7e01-4b38-8b18-88c45ec28eef
Rating: 5
Created: 1 year ago
Your ad can be here
Create Post

Similar classified ads


News's other ads