Gay pairs request licenses
Colo. Springs clerk rejects 20 couples
By Dick Foster, Rocky Mountain News


COLORADO SPRINGS - One by one the 20 couples, men with men and women with women, filed up to the El Paso County Clerk's counter just after noon Friday and asked for marriage licenses.

"I'm sorry, I can't issue you a marriage license," a clerk told each. "Colorado statute requires that a marriage be between a man and a woman."

Then the Rev. Nori Rost, a lesbian who lives with her partner, and Ryan Acker, the head of the Pikes Peak Gay and Lesbian Community Center, asked for a marriage license.

The clerk complied, and with a payment of $10, Rost and Acker were given a license.