{"id":117235,"date":"2014-10-10T02:51:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-10T08:51:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/same-sex-couple-gets-license-to-marry\/"},"modified":"2014-10-10T02:51:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-10T08:51:55","slug":"same-sex-couple-gets-license-to-marry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/same-sex-couple-gets-license-to-marry\/","title":{"rendered":"Same-sex couple gets license to marry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sandra
Sandra Culpepper and Glynis Verrazzano show off their marriage license Thursday after getting a marriage license from Montezuma County.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is awesome. This is so cool,\u201d Verrazzano said as she unfolded a paper that read \u201cMarriage License State of Colorado.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis says it all right here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Verrazzano and Culpepper were the first in Montezuma County to get a marriage license, as opposed to a civil union license.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 7, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers ordered all Colorado clerks to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision not to hear appeals regarding several states\u2019 marriage bans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are no longer second-class citizens,\u201d Culpepper said.<\/p>\n

On July 20, 2013, the couple received a \u201cCivil Union License\u201d from Montezuma County after a wedding ceremony on their property near Mancos.<\/p>\n

But the civil union license, Verrazzano said, only treated the couple as a married couple in Colorado. They still were not able to file federal taxes together, or adopt children together or visit each other in a hospital in states that didn\u2019t recognize their union.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis means we have all the rights as any married couple now,\u201d Verrazzano said.<\/p>\n

The two planned on spending the rainy Thursday in the mountains. They wanted to enjoy the fall scenery to celebrate their marriage, which was completed with a couple of signatures at the Montezuma County Clerk\u2019s office at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big deal having federal benefits,\u201d Verrazzano said.<\/p>\n

The couple has raised three children, and now that they\u2019re officially married, they can both be treated as legal guardians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been her mom since she was born, now that is recognized,\u201d Verrazzano said. \u201cA piece of paper does all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verrazzano is a retired fire captain. Culpepper is a retired homicide detective. Both are from North Carolina. The couple have lived in Montezuma County for five years.<\/p>\n

The two plan on a big honeymoon next year.<\/p>\n

When Colorado started issuing the civil union licenses last year, they issued eight, according to the Montezuma County Clerk\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

As of Friday, only one of those has been turned into a marriage license.<\/p>\n

A marriage license costs $30.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Culpepper and Glynis Verrazzano show off their marriage license Thursday after getting a marriage license from Montezuma County.Sam Green\/Cortez Journal \u201cThis is awesome. This is so cool,\u201d Verrazzano said as she unfolded a paper that read \u201cMarriage License State of Colorado.\u201d \u201cThis says it all right here,\u201d she said. Verrazzano and Culpepper were the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":117236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-117235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117235"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=117235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}