“So many families, including First Gentleman Marlon Reis and I, are grateful for the visionary leadership of Clela Rorex, a woman ahead of her time.” Hodges in 2015, which legalized marriage equality nationally,” Polis wrote on Facebook. “Her certification of same-sex marriages (until the Attorney General shut her down) was a pivotal moment in the long struggle for marriage equality that led to Obergefell v. Jared Polis, Colorado’s first openly gay governor, paid tribute to Rorex upon learning of her passing. Supreme Court decision recognized the fundamental right nationwide.
Suffering from chronic migraines and dealing with hate mail, she resigned halfway through her term.Ĭolorado legalized gay marriage in 2014 after a state court and a Denver federal court struck down a 2006 ban enacted by state voters. Rorex recalled that she had little public support and didn’t challenge the attorney general.Ī recall effort was launched against Rorex, a single mother and University of Colorado graduate student. State and federal law didn’t recognize gay marriage at the time. 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.
