L-R: Speaker of the CO House Mark Ferrandino, Mountain States ADL Director Scott Levin, MSU Denver President Dr. Stephen M. Jordan

 

Over 160 civic leaders and community members gathered on February 6th at the Denver Art Museum to honor Speaker of the Colorado House Mark Ferrandino and Metropolitan State University of Denver and Its Leadership: President Stephen Jordan and Board Chair Robert Cohen. Ferrandino, Jordan and Cohen received from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) its 2014 Civil Rights Awards.

ADL Regional Director Scott Levin quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., who famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”  Levin noted that Ferrandino, Jordan and Cohen were all people who worked tirelessly to bend the arc just a little closer to justice.

 

Speaker Ferrandino was honored by ADL for championing passage of the Colorado Civil Union Act in 2013, making Colorado one of 20 states plus the District of Columbia to offer recognition to same-sex couples.

 

Metropolitan State University of Denver, Jordan and Cohen were honored for having led MSU to provide access to higher education for undocumented students, which ultimately helped pave the way for the Colorado Legislature to pass the ASSET Bill in 2013.

Ferrandino was introduced by Fran and Anna Simon, one of the first Colorado couples to celebrate a civil union on the night the law went into effect. In thanking ADL for the award, Ferrandino commented, “If ADL is behind me, I know I’m doing the right thing.”

Upon being introduced by a current MSU Denver student who has been a beneficiary of the tuition reduction afforded to undocumented students by the University, Cohen and Jordan both commented that they viewed the University’s decision to offer a reduced tuition rate to be simply “the right thing to do.”

The event was co-chaired by ADL Civil Rights Committee Chairs Daniel McKenzie, Monica Rosenbluth and Holly Stein Sollod.

To view more photos from the event, visit Blacktie Colorado’s event page here:

http://photos.blacktie-colorado.com/event/anti-defamation-league-civil-rights-awards/