A judge Tuesday ruled that Colorado's anti-gay-rights initiative, Amendment 2, is unconstitutional.
Denver District Judge Jeffrey Bayless said in the opinion released Tuesday that Amendment 2 is unconstitutional because it violates "the fundamental right of an identifiable group to participate in the political process."He made his injunction blocking it from taking effect permanent.
Amendment 2, approved by voters in November 1992, would ban state and local laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. It also would cancel existing gay rights ordinances in Aspen, Boulder and Denver.
It was approved by Colorado voters in a statewide referendum 53 to 47 percent
Supporters, a coalition of conservatives and Christian fundamentalists, had pushed the amendment as a way of protecting what they call family values and had vowed to appeal if the judge struck down the measure.
Opponents said the amendment would give Colorado a reputation as a "hate state."
A trial on the amendment's constitutionality was held in October.
In the ruling, Bayless said evidence presented then did not show that there is a "militant gay aggression in this state that endangers the state's political functions."
He also said the evidence also did not persuade him that without Amendment 2, homosexuals would be able to lay claim to special protection now afforded minorities, as Amendment 2's supporters said.
The legal challenge to Amendment 2 was originally brought by the three cities whose gay-rights ordinances were canceled and nine individual opponents of the measure.