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He had 33 albums and singles that were certified Gold and Platinum in the U.S by the RIAA, with estimated sales of more than 33 million units. ĭenver recorded and released approximately 300 songs, about 200 of which he composed. By 1974, he was one of America's best-selling performers AllMusic has called Denver "among the most beloved entertainers of his era". Starting in the 1970s, he was one of the most popular acoustic artists of the decade and one of its best-selling artists. After traveling and living in numerous locations while growing up in his military family, Denver began his music career with folk music groups during the late 1960s. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer-songwriter, actor, activist, and humanitarian whose greatest commercial success was as a solo singer. And to celebrate that and talk about it in such a public setting was personally so enriching and so joyful.Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. “As a gay man it meant so much to me that one of the reasons that so many people voted yes for the designation, and with such excitement, was that long history of commitment to equal rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people,” Carroll said.
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In the 1970s, the Gay and Lesbian Center (now called The Center) got its start in the church’s basement.Īnd as far back as 1975, when a defiant Boulder county clerk briefly issued same-sex marriage licenses because nothing in the law specifically forbade it, First Unitarian was the site of Richard Adams and Tony Sullivan’s wedding. Shortly after the church bought the Plymouth Congregational building, the Mattachine Society-one of the nation’s first gay advocacy groups-moved into one of the adjacent houses owned by First Unitarian. None of the congregation’s work engenders more pride than its involvement in the gay rights movement. The National Trust contributed to their ongoing fundraising drive with a $10,000 grant from the Peter Grant Fund for Colorado. The historic building’s facade is deteriorating in places, and the interior needs to be overhauled. The church first pursued landmark status as a way to help with a major renovation project. They’ve also been on the forefront of the gay rights movement since the 1950s. The Denver chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality-one of the leading civil rights groups in the 1960s-started in First Unitarian’s basement, and congregants went undercover to expose local redlining.
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But First Unitarian is even more proud of its history as a hub for community activism.įounded in 1871, the church has played a role in every progressive struggle from the fight for women’s suffrage to the Black Lives Matter movement.
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The building is a Denver gem-its original, locally quarried Rhyolite stone a marker for the Capitol Hill and Cheesman Park neighborhoods. Originally constructed in the 1890s, the Romanesque Revival building first housed the Plymouth Congregational Church before being sold to First Unitarian in 1958. The city council determined that the church had significance in all three of the Landmarks Commission’s criteria: history, architecture, and geography. It isn’t even confined to the church’s congregation in August, the City of Denver named the church building a historic landmark, making it the first Denver site to be awarded the status for its importance to the gay rights movement. “So when we were committed to doing it in Colorado, there was never any doubt that we would have the ceremony at the building.”Ĭarroll and Barrows are two of about 400 members, and their pride in the church-derived from First Unitarian’s long history of fighting for social justice causes-is hardly unique. “When we met 29 years ago, he told me, ‘If this turns into anything, you’re going to have to move to Northwest Denver.’ He was neighborhood specific,” Carroll said. Barrows, a fourth-generation Denverite, was insistent that they have a Colorado marriage license. Longtime members of the First Unitarian Society of Denver, the couple had waited and waited for the state’s ban on same-sex marriage to be overturned. When the Colorado Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2014, there was little question about where Eddy Carroll and Glenn Barrows would officially tie the knot.