As many as 200,000 people marched Sunday from Cheesman Park to Civic Center in Denver’s annual gay pride parade. The crowd was about 20,000 larger than last year’s crowd, organizers said.
Several politicians also showed up for PrideFest 2006, some referring to four ballot measures regarding gay marriage or domestic partnerships. Two of the measures, one a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage and the other a referendum on domestic partnerships, are already on the Colorado ballot this fall.
Two others are in the signature-gathering stage: One would ask voters to effectively prohibit domestic partnerships and the other is designed to negate that measure.
“There is big political ballot this year,” said Dave Johnson , co-chair of Gay Lesbian and Transgender Community Center of Colorado, which organized the event in conjunction with other centers around the country, including San Francisco, Atlanta and New York. “We had a more detailed speech at the rally – and there were three times the politicos.”
Among the politicians were Mayor John Hickenlooper, who spoke to marchers at Cheesman Park. The Democratic candidate for governor, Bill Ritter, and his running mate, Barbara O’Brien, marched in the parade.
Johnson said this year organizers added a family day with events such as gunny-sack races.
One PrideFest attendee, Laura Griego, 51, lives in Arvada with her girlfriend of 12 years. Griego said she wants her girlfriend to have power of attorney if she is sick, and she wants the tax credits that come with marriage.
“We just want what people in normal life take for granted – we can’t hold hands most places,” she said.
David Sellon, a Republican from Colorado Springs, said he comes to the event every year. He said it was hard for him to vote for Democrats, but many Republicans were supporting an amendment that would ban same-sex marriage.
Thaniel Chase, of the Stonewall Democrats, a state group that backs gay and lesbian issues, said the ballot issues brought more people to the parade.
“When they think of it in terms of a constitutional ban, which limits rights, and they see how it affects them,” they turn out, he said.
Volunteers with Coloradans for Fairness and Equality corralled festivalgoers to sign a petition for a ballot measure to block a Republican-backed measure that would make domestic unions similar to marriage illegal in Colorado.
Staff writer Joel Grostephan can be reached at 303-820-1201 or jgrostephan@denverpost.com.
