Colorado is beginning to ease some of the restrictions placed on gay couples in recent years as a state tries to crack downs on a range of new forms of religious conversion therapy.
Gay marriage licenses have been issued in most of the state’s 50 counties, including Boulder, Fort Collins, Grand Junction and Larimer.
But in Boulder County, which includes the city of Boulder, it took nearly two months for a judge to issue a marriage license to a gay couple.
It was only after a court ruling that allowed same-sex marriage licenses to be issued that the Boulder County Clerk’s Office began issuing them.
Colorado is the first state in the nation to permit gay marriage, with the governor signing a law last month allowing gay couples to wed and adopt.
It became the first U.S. state to allow gay couples, married or unmarried, to adopt after a federal judge in June issued a preliminary injunction halting the state from enforcing a federal ban on gay marriage.
The county clerk’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Gay conversion therapy has been a controversial issue in the United States for years.
It’s been outlawed by state and federal law, but it remains legal in many states.
It uses a variety of techniques to change a person’s sexual orientation, sometimes to the point where the person ends up believing homosexuality is a choice and gay marriage is a reality.
In Colorado, a gay man in his early 20s who had been in a same-year relationship with a man who had lived in his hometown and had children of his own says he and a few other gay men began practicing it after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling legalizing gay marriage in June 2015.
The man, who asked that his real name not be used, said he had a few sessions at a Boulder church and that a therapist began to push him toward gay conversion.
He said he wanted to go public and get the attention of other gay people who were trying to do the same thing and said he was a victim of persecution.
In November, Colorado lawmakers approved a measure banning the practice.
The law has been upheld in court and the state Supreme Court, which will hear arguments in March, is expected to decide whether to take up the case.
The law allows a person to request a civil ceremony that would recognize their marriage, but the law requires a marriage certificate, which many people don’t have because it’s difficult to obtain or can be expensive.
It also requires a judge’s signature and, for people under the age of 18, a medical evaluation.
The measure has also attracted criticism from other rights groups, who say the law could put gay couples at a disadvantage in accessing social services.
Colorado has also faced a surge in anti-gay discrimination.
In 2016, a judge in the state said the state had failed to properly protect the religious freedom of people who practice gay conversion, saying the practice could lead to discrimination.
A judge overturned the conviction of a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a gay wedding because he believed the practice was wrong.
