A Denver jury
found a lesbian couple guilty of trespassing for staging a
brief sit-in after the Denver Office of the Clerk and
Recorder refused to grant them a marriage license,
The New York Times reported Thursday.
Sheila Schroeder
and Kate Burns, both from the Denver suburb of
Englewood, sought to overturn Colorado’s ban on
same-sex marriage, arguing it violated their right to
equal protection under the law. But in Denver County
court, Judge James B. Breese told the jury of six women to
limit themselves to the trespassing charge.
Schroeder and
Burns will have to complete 28 hours of community service
and pay $41 in court fines.
”This was
an excellent opportunity for them to stand proudly as
Americans and exercise their First Amendment rights to
protest what they believe was an unfair law that
treated people unequally,” Mari Newman, the
couple’s attorney, told the Times. (The
Advocate)