This is just sad.
As you may remember from a couple days ago, the Colorado House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee killed a bill that would legalize civil unions. It had already been approved by the Senate and, if passed in the House, would have been signed into law by Governor John Hickenlooper. The move would have signified a shift for gay and lesbian Coloradans from third-class to second-class citizenship. But apparently even that was too big a step for the Republican-controlled committee, because they wouldn't even send the bill to the House floor, despite sixty-two percent of Coloradans supporting the legalization of civil unions.
GOP Representative Don Coram was the deciding vote. Infuriatingly, as Coram cast the vote that killed civil unions in Colorado, he spoke of his gay son and said he was proud of him. It was a sick family twist on the "I-have-gay-friends" argument, meant to provide cover for his anti-gay actions by professing love for his son. It was truly a stomach-turning spectacle.
Well, his gay son, Dee Coram, has spoken out. And, as you can imagine, he's not very happy about his father's vote.
Dee has this to say about his father's failure to stand up for his rights:
He did say at that time if it goes to the floor, I will vote no. But at that time his stance was that the committee should send it and let the House vote on it. He was given an opportunity here to actually be a leader, and I guess he didn’t take that leadership role. And it’s disappointing to see that on something like this, he said it should have gone to the House floor for a vote. Essentially he prevented that from happening.
As sad as this story is at its heart, it really is satisfying to see Dee not letting his father get away with using him to defend his vote.
Watch the video:
Rep. Coram is claiming to actually support civil unions. He voted against the bill because it had the word "spouse" in it too many times. Seriously. I guess that's what he's telling himself to get to sleep at night.
He also claims he voted against the bill because the majority of his constituents don't support it. Apparently we don't live in a representative republic anymore--we've got some ancient Athens-style direct democracy going on in Coram's district.
Leah Pryor-Lease of the Gill Foundation absolutely nails it on Twitter:
Wonder if Rep. Coram’s district will be coming to his house for Christmas instead of his gay son.