Whereas Clela Ann Rorex was born in Denver on July 23, 1943, to Ruby Rorex, a dance and theater teacher, and Cecil Rorex, who served as Clerk of Routt County, Colorado, for 30 years, where Clela grew up in Steamboat Springs; Whereas Clela earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1973 and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Colorado Denver in 1981; Whereas Clela, at the age of 31, became Boulder County Clerk and Recorder in January 1975; Whereas, in 1975, when a same-sex couple requested a marriage license in Boulder County, Clela consulted the assistant district attorney and learned that Colorado State laws did not specifically prohibit granting a marriage license to a same-sex couple; Whereas, as a newly elected county clerk, Clela issued a marriage license to Dave McCord and Dave Zamora, the first marriage license issued to a same-sex couple in the United States; Whereas Clela was quoted in 2016 as saying, After having been so deeply involved in the women’s rights movements, who was I to then deny a right to anyone else? It wasn’t my job to legislate morality. ; Whereas, over the next month, Clela issued five more marriage licenses to same-sex couples; Whereas national news outlets circulated Clela’s groundbreaking story, after which she reported receiving a deluge of death threats and condemnation in hundreds of letters and phone calls to the Boulder County Clerk’s office; Whereas Clela issued marriage licenses to six same-sex couples in Boulder County, Colorado, in April 1975, 40 years before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in 2015; Whereas, in 2014, a series of court rulings cleared the way for same-sex marriages in Colorado; Whereas, despite the threats and for decades, Clela continued her advocacy efforts on behalf of the LGBTQ community including marching, volunteering, and donating to LGBTQ efforts; Whereas Clela was 78 years old when she died on June 19, 2022, in Longmont, Colorado