On March 26, 1975, a marriage license was issued at the Boulder County Courthouse to Dave McCord and Dave Zamora by County Clerk Clela Rorex. This was one of the first times in the country that two men had been granted a marriage license. More LGBTQ+ couples approached Rorex for licenses, and five more were granted before the Colorado Attorney General ordered her to stop.
The two men named Dave, from Colorado Springs, walked into the Boulder County Courthouse in 1975 and asked the novice 31-year-old County Clerk for a marriage license. Rorex, then two months into the same job her father had once held, grappled with a question she had never considered before. She consulted Bill Wise, the Assistant District Attorney, who advised that there was no specific language in the law preventing two men from marrying. After considering the matter for two days, she decided to issue the license.
Rorex became an active ally and friend to Boulder’s LGBTQ+ community until her death on June 19, 2022.
She kept a collection of letters written to her after issuing those licenses and ultimately donated them to the Museum of Boulder.
Several rotate on long-term display in The Boulder Experience exhibit, but a special collection of never-before-exhibited letters are currently on display in Bending the Arc: A Uniquely Boulder Story of LGBTQ+ Rights.
Below is a small selection of letters from that collection.
After reading the letters from 1975, visitors are encouraged to write their own letters to Rorex. Below is a selection of visitor-contributed letters left behind.
