Civil Unions Issue Will Be Back On The Fast Track Next Session

DENVER (CBS4) - The matter of civil unions in Colorado will be back on the fast track now that Democrats have taken control of the legislature.

The issue could come up as early as the first week of the session in January. It died during an emergency second session last time around.

Denver residents Michael Carr and Fred Bachhuber are a gay couple who has been together for six years.

"We believe in commitment, we believe in the time-honored tradition of marriage and we wanted something that as closely resembled marriage as possible," Carr said.

Carr and Bachhuber were joined in a state-sanctioned civil union in Illinois in January, but come to find out, in Colorado it doesn't even matter.

"It really doesn't do anything," Carr said.

In 2006 Colorado voters declared in Amendment 43 that marriage is between a man and woman. The federal government approved the same concept in the Defense Of Marriage Act. So no matter what, according to Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, who sponsored Colorado's failed Civil Unions Bill, same sex couples don't have the same rights as married couples.

"So they can't file joint income tax returns, Social Security benefits don't work the same for them. All sorts of transactions for spouses that will be tax exempt for married couples are not tax exempt for couples of the same sex," Steadman said.

Rochelle Finzel works for the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures. She says while there are differences from marriage between a man and woman, the lines between civil unions and gay marriage are blurred.

"It's just a name in a sense. It's a state-established legal relationship, so it's however the state wants to define that," Finzel said.

While Carr and Bachhuber were joined in civil unions, they have no additional rights without Colorado's recognition.

"The federal government, and for that matter the state of Colorado, as far as they're concerned we're just two dudes living in a house," Carr said.