lgbtq

National gay-rights group Freedom to Marry will air ads this week in Washington, DC, Colorado, Oklahoma and Wyoming featuring former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson, a Wyoming lawmaker long identified in American politics with western conservativism who makes the case in the ad for gay marriage.

Gay rights supporters in Colorado are applauding the New Mexico Supreme Court ruling that affirmed the right of same-sex couples to marry in the state, celebrating the unanimous decision as yet another in a cascade of similar developments coast to coast that underscore the progress the movement for equal rights in the U.S. has made in the last decade.

New Jersey moved from same-sex civil unions to gay marriage in a flash. It will be a longer road for Colorado. Although Colorado legalized civil unions in 2013, a 2006 amendment to the state constitution banning gay marriage stands in the road like a high hurdle.

This month, major health care insurer Kaiser Permanente announced it would no longer exclude transgender Coloradans from treatment and, more than that, would offer transgender-specific health care to its all of its policies. With protections in place under the still-in-tumult Affordable Care Act set to go in effect this year, transgender Americans could soon be afforded the same type of health coverage as their neighbor.