Like any other Colorado family: Families who put faces to the civil unions bill reflect on victory

In a packed hearing room in Colorado’s Capitol building, news photographers hurriedly snapped photos of lesbian couple Fran and Anna Simon and their 5-year-old son, Jeremy, gathered on the witness stand beneath the Old Supreme Court Chamber’s flamboyant brass chandelier. In crisp, professional attire – even little Jeremy donning a collared shirt and kid-sized paisley tie – the two mothers explained in familiar kitchen-table terms the benefits they’d gain, and personal significance entwined, in the bill before the state Senate committee – a bill to give them the right to form a civil union.

Fran and Anna became a favorite media focal point when they testified, regularly, at public hearings for civil unions now three years in a row. For the first two years they spoke ardently before House, then later Senate committee members, from the very same wooden stand, only to see each year’s bill die in partisan turmoil. This time – round three – a weight was lifted off the couple’s shoulders.

The routine testimony was familiar for the Simons, and also for the legislators, reporters, activists and thousands of concerned citizens following live from the room itself or news and online audio feeds. But the atmosphere was different. It was the first time Jeremy took the stand with his moms. Most pivotally, this time civil unions supporters controlled the legislature and promised that the bill would pass.

In an earlier interview with Out Front, the Simons were buoyant about the bill’s prospects. “We’re much more optimistic this year,” Anna said.

“It would be exciting if the bill gets signed near our 10-year anniversary” which was March 2, said Fran.

Anna, who works in the Biology department at the University of Denver, is originally from Cincinnati. Fran, an independent research consultant, is from New Jersey. They both lived in California’s Bay Area when they met, and have lived in Denver together since 2004.

They had a wedding ceremony in 2005. Anna said, “It was important for us to declare before our families, our communities, and before God – we’re both Jewish – that we’d made a commitment to each other for life. But there was no legal recognition at all.”

The Simons eventually took advantage of an earlier Colorado law allowing same-sex couples to enter a Designated Beneficiary Agreement, which offers some relationship rights when it comes to inheritance, health care and hospital visitation. But that and other legal arrangements they’d put in place were costly, and left much to be desired.

“Quite frankly, for a lot of these things we’d spend thousands of dollars just cobbling them together,” Anna said. “And even with all that, it’s not equivalent to a civil union. And a lot of Coloradoans don’t have access to those funds.”

“For us there’s both the practical aspect and the psychological aspect,” she said. “With a civil union we’d have the tools to protect us in a time of crisis, and psychologically, people would recognize what a civil union is.”

“And it’s a dignity issue,” Fran chimed in, before Anna continued: “…that we’re a family with the same issues as any other Colorado family.”

(After celebrating 10 years together the two have apparently developed a tendency to finish each other’s sentences.)

When civil unions become available May 1, the Simons will race to tie the knot.

“We’d probably have to do it at like 8 a.m. the first day so that we can get our kid to school,” Fran said.

Chuckling, Anna: “I’d love to be first in line.”

Fran: “I guess I’d be second, then.” Both laugh.

For another Colorado couple – also known for public testimony for civil unions – there won’t be a need to dash to the courthouse in May. The moment the law takes effect, their 2008 California marriage will apply as a Colorado civil union.

“I think the biggest piece of it is our marriage from California will be recognized in Colorado,” said Jason Cobb – whose partner is also named Jason – and who testified at the same stretch of public hearings the Simons spoke at. Cobb and Prussman are corporate attorneys, who, like the Simons, also have a young son, Jacobb, who is 6. Together they lived through the same political roller coaster that was the fight for civil unions, speaking at the hearings only to see their efforts end with dashed hopes two years in a row before the bill finally passed.

“Politically, it’s been a fascinating story to unfold – very dramatic,” Cobb said. “But I think that for anyone from myself to the politicians pushing for the bill, the personal dimensions are really apparent,” Cobb said.

Cobb mentioned state Sen. Pat Steadman – who personally introduced the bill all three years – whose partner, Dave Misner, succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2012 before the ultimate passage of his own bill that would have allowed their union to be recognized.

For Jason and Jason, it’s not as much about the specific legal benefits a civil union will provide as it is the recognition the bill represents – recognition for relationships like Steadman and Misner had, for same-sex couples across the state, and for themselves.

“We’ve thought of ourselves and lived as committed couple almost all of our adult lives,” Prussman said. “Once civil unions passes, our hope is that more people will begin seeing our family as more like their own than different.”

“It’s the public understanding of our relationships and how we’re not that different from anyone else. And the security it provides our son,” Cobb said.

“It really seems a bit inevitable and anticlimactic right now,” Prussman added. “I was born here (in Colorado), and we’ve been together 15 years building a life together. All my family is up in Fort Collins, and have been great support; I’m proud that my parents even came down and lobbied in person at the Capitol last year.”

They’d first gotten involved in the hearings on Cobb’s initiative – for him, being in the midst of debate is second nature. At first, he went to a legislative hearing intending to only watch, but couldn’t help himself but to sign up and testify.

“I couldn’t keep my mouth shut – like always,” Cobb said.

But his partner was glad to hear about it later.

“Jason was proud of me. I don’t think he was surprised,” Cobb said. “He said, ‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.’”

Soon they would be another star Colorado family making the cause for civil unions more real to the politicians who would cast the deciding votes.

Like Jason and Jason, the Simons saw it as a duty to participate.

“We both have a long history of caring about social issues,” Fran said, “but most of that was in college.” Two years ago now, in 2011, civil unions advocates who knew who the Simons were reached out and asked if they’d testify for the then-new civil unions bill.

“We were very happy to,” Fran said.

“We’re in a unique position that we can do this work,” Anna said. “Our schedules are a lot more flexible than other people’s, and we can be out to our families and at work, so we think it’s our moral obligation to speak up.”

The Simons’ willingness to give faces to the issue didn’t go unrecognized by the community. But underneath the collected, articulate public image the Simons represented at the hearings, there is between them a distinct everyday affection for each other.

“I don’t know if this is relevant, but the Denver Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce awarded us in November with the ‘Community Allies of the Year’ award for our testimony,” Anna offered – unsolicited – during the phone conversation. “Oh – ”Anna halted herself “ – Fran’s scowling at me now.”

They’re truly, as they said they hope their civil union will convey, a family like any other.

“The whole thing is confusing for our son,” Anna said. “Because he sees us as already married. And his friends see us as already married.”

“It’s normal to him,” Fran added. “He just says he has ‘two moms.’ Just I’d say I have two parents, or some people have one parent. Just like anybody else.”