Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the authorship of the research on which this proposed National Register of Historic Places amendment is based.
Already a national historic landmark, the Boulder County Courthouse looming over the Pearl Street Mall is poised to receive further recognition for its association with the first same-sex marriage licenses issued in Colorado and the civil rights struggle for LGBTQ people.
Longmont’s Clela Rorex will be on hand in Denver for a review of that proposition by the Colorado Historic Preservation Review Board on May 18. And that’s appropriate, since she was the one who took the steps that ultimately gave the structure its greater historical significance.
In March 1975, Rorex, now 74, issued the first of a half-dozen same-sex marriage licenses to gay couples, before she was quickly shut down by an opinion issued by then-Colorado Attorney General J. D. MacFarlane that state law implied a requirement that married couples, in fact, be heterosexual.
Rorex earned additional headlines by denying a license to a man named Roswell Howard, who showed up with his horse, wanting to marry the animal as an act of protest. She did so, she said, on her belief the horse was underage.
On June 26, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage — Rorex was on hand that day at the Boulder County Clerk and Recorder’s Office to witness the county’s first marriages in the wake of that ruling — and she has had the satisfaction of watching society, and the law, catch up to a frontier she pioneered 43 years ago.
“The history of those licenses is important at some level to the LGBT community now, and especially here in Boulder. That happened here,” Rorex said on Thursday. “I guess we really want to recognize that we were on the forefront of something. We told a story. We told a story way early on.
“But it was still a story that stayed in some people’s minds over the decades about the importance of legally recognizing same-gender marriage.”
‘Area of significance’
The Boulder County Courthouse, built in 1933 by local architect Glenn Huntington, was actually added to the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places by virtue of its location in the Downtown Boulder Historic District, which was listed in the national registry on Dec. 3, 1980.
“The courthouse was included in that (historic) district, and so it is already listed, because it is a contributing structure to that district,” said Denise Grimm, a senior planner with Boulder County.
“What’s occurring now is that the state is proposing to amend the (prior) nomination of the courthouse, to include an additional area of significance under social history for its association with the first same-sex marriage licenses issued in Colorado and the civil rights struggles of the LGBT community.”
The research and package for the state board’s review was completed by Astrid Liverman, former national and state register coordinator for History Colorado, and Erika Warzel, state preservation planning manager for History Colorado.
“It is gratifying to see such an important piece of Boulder history well documented, and it is a testament to the incredible progress the LGBTQ movement has seen over the last 43 years,” said David Ensign, a Boulder Planning Board member who serves as its non-voting liaison to the city’s Landmarks Board.
Grimm said that amending the courthouse’s historical designation has already been approved by Boulder County’s Historic Preservation Advisory Board, and she expects a letter of endorsement for that step will be presented to county commissioners for their consideration in the next two weeks, prior to the state review board’s May 18 meeting.
James Hewat, historic preservation planner for Boulder, said the city’s Landmarks Board reviewed the nomination amendment earlier this month and “were very supportive” of the recognition. The city’s voice was sought since, although the building is a county property, it is located in the city limits.
Mardi Moore, executive director of the advocacy group Out Boulder County, where Rorex still volunteers once a week, is happy to see the movement toward enhanced recognition for what Rorex did, and for where she did it.
“I think the reality is that the marriage licenses that Clela issued were never made null and void, even though the attorney general shut her down… they were finally recognized in court as being valid,” Moore said.
“And we celebrated, a couple years ago, gay marriage across the country. The reality is that if people had paid attention to what was happening in Boulder County in 1975, there would already be a case for support around the legality.”
‘Grew into that decision’
The action pending before the state history officials is about a building and not a single person. But what that person did, and how the wider community has responded in the years that followed, deserve recognition, Moore said.
“It wasn’t just that one act,” Moore said. “Clela has been committed to equality for a very long time, with special attention to the LGBT community. And we couldn’t have a better ally. I think it’s the recognition the county of Boulder deserves, and Clela Rorex deserves, for her brave action.”
Rorex expressed reservations about one aspect of the courthouse’s connection to history. She objects to the fact that her moment is marked in a ground-floor photo montage by a shot of Howard and his infamous horse.
“It denigrates the whole thought of the human aspect of same-gender marriage,” she said, adding that it should be “changed out” with one that more respectfully honors the first license recipients.
“I knew there has been lots of discussion about swapping that photo out,” said county spokeswoman Barb Halpin. “I think, because of what we want to reflect today in Boulder, we want to align ourselves with inclusion and the movement for marriage equality.”
She cited a challenge in doing so, however, because the image of a man and his horse is integrated into the montage in such a way that “it’s like taking an arm off a statue and putting something else back on there.”
Rorex, who has been a frequent presence at events involving the LGBT community since moving back to Boulder County in 2013, nevertheless voices mixed feelings over being held as an exemplar of a community’s evolution — or that of an entire state — toward a greater level of tolerance and understanding.
“I’ve wrestled with that over the years,” she said. “But certainly, I was the one that did step forward and made the decision to issue those six licenses.
“But I often say I grew into that decision. Because it took many years for me to begin to meet a lot of people in the LGBT community who had spent years together, and I learned their stories. It took a long time for me to understand that just by a fluke of history, I was an ally in the LGBT community. And it took me years to learn to become a good ally.”
Charlie Brennan: 303-473-1327, brennanc@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/chasbrennan
