The first legally binding unions between same-sex couples began in the early hours of this morning (Wednesday 1 May) in Colorado.

Couples were lining-up since 2pm yesterday outside the municipal Webb Building Denver where civil union ceremonies were scheduled to be performed from 12.01 to 2am, The Denver Channel reports.

Last December Princeton University freshman Duncan Hosie became a news item after asking US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia about his language in an important gay equality case.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper today signed into law a measure that legalizes same-sex civil unions in his state.

The new law provides gay and lesbian couples with such legal protections and responsibilities as the ability to take family leave to care for a partner, to make medical and end-of-life decisions for a partner, to live together in a nursing home, and to adopt children together.

Beleagured singer Michelle Shocked said today that her onstage rant against gay marriage has been misinterpreted and that she is not in any way anti-gay.

'I do not, nor have I ever, said or believed that God hates homosexuals (or anyone else). I said that some of His followers believe that,' the singer tells CNN in a statement.

The Colorado House of Representatives today formally passed a civil unions bill with the support of all Democrats and two Republicans.

The Colorado Civil Union Act passed 39-26 in the final legislative step before it is presented to Governor John Hickenlooper who has promised to sign it into law. It was passed by the Senate last month.

It was just seven years ago that the state voted to constitutionally ban same-sex marriage.

A civil unions bill passed through its third and final committee vote today in the Colorado House of Representatives and will next go before the full House for a vote next week.

The bill was passed in bipartisan 9-4 vote by the House Appropriations Committee. Two days earlier, it narrowly cleared the House Finance Committee. The House Judiciary Committee approved it last week.

The Colorado State Senate gave formal passage on Monday (11 February) to a civil unions bill that now moves on to the House for consideration.

It was the bill's third and final reading in the Senate which last Friday approved the bill with all Democrats voting in favor and Republican Senator Ellen Roberts crossing party lines to vote in support.

A television news investigation suggests there were repeated examples of LGBT discrimination in the  Colorado State Patrol.

A civil unions bill passed its first vote before the full Colorado State Senate on Friday (8 February) after three hours of debate. It must next pass a formal vote on Monday (11 Monday) before it is goes on to the House where it is also expected to pass.

The bill, SB-11, provides gay and lesbian couples with such legal protections and responsibilities as the ability to take family leave to care for a partner, to make medical and end-of-life decisions for a partner, to live together in a nursing home, and to adopt children together.

Pastor Kevin Swanson warned that if Colorado allows civil unions for same-sex couples, gays will end up burning Christians at the stake and children will be handed over to paedophiles.

Speaking on Generations Radio, Swanson warned that as soon as 2022, the state government will snatch kids from homeschooling families and deliver them to members of the a paedophile group he named as the North American Man/Boy Love Association(NAMBLA).

Civil unions took a step towards becoming law in Colorado late Wednesday (23 January).

The state's Senate Judiciary Committee voted 3-to-2 to send a bill that gives same-sex couples the opportunity to join together legally on to the Senate Appropriations Committee for consideration.

It is then expected to be advanced to by the committee to the full senate for a vote.

Senate Democrats are set to approve to gay civil unions during a planned vote in the legislative committee’s first session, scheduled later today (23 January).

The bill, which was unsuccessful in the past due to Republican opposition, is likely to become law, with Democrats controlling the state House, Senate and governor’s office.

In the last two years there has been a vocal and at times antagonistic debate over a same-sex civil union bill which was defeated and criticized by Republicans and religious leaders.