In the recent midterm election, Jared Polis became Colorado’s openly gay governor. This is nothing new across the U.S, as Oregon’s governor Kate Brown has been nominated as an openly bisexual woman and, in 2000, Jim McGreevy had come out as gay before stepping down. For Colorado this is a huge step as Colorado has been infamously called the ‘Hate State’ due to Amendment 2 as well as the Cake Baker decision.

Amendment 2 would have prevented LGBTQ people of being able to work simply because of discrimination. This was voted on by the people of Colorado and has been in the constitution but was quickly repealed in the case of Romer V. Evans. What happened was that some cities had passed anti-discrimination laws, which were voided by that amendment. Romer sued Evans, the governor of colorado at the time, and in a 6-3 majority, the law was ruled unconstitutional. I feel that this marked a huge step forwards in LGBTQ history, knowing that they can’t be fired based on who they love.

The Cake Baker case was when a homosexual couple was denied a custom wedding cake by a baker. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the baker by a 7-2 majority, and this was a huge step backwards for tolerance. I believe that the justices involved were unfairly biased, but the gay couple also has a fault and they could have gone to a different baker, but it still doesn’t excuse the homophobia present.

Now that Colorado has elected Jared Polis it seems as if Colorado is working on becoming more accepting and that this is a huge step for the once called ‘Hate State.’ However, just because the governor is gay does not mean that citizens should give him a free pass, or judge harshly. I believe that citizens should judge policies as they are not who made them,which should be common sense but alas people want to judge things based on who made them. This is a new page for Colorado and we can right past wrongs, but call out new wrongs and make them right. Honestly, I think that this is one of the best things that has ever happened because with all of the recent decisions as well as colorado coming a long way away from the whole homophobic title, then this just further solidifies a step forward. That, however, does not mean that he should be judged to harshly, or all of his bad decisions should be swept under the rug. I am the least qualified to talk about the issue of politics, but to LGBTQ people it is a step forwards.

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