Gov. Jared Polis (D-CO), the first openly gay man to be elected governor of a U.S. state, is celebrating Pride Month by displaying an LGBTQ flag on the state capitol building.
“The Pride Flag is on display this weekend at our Colorado State Capitol. I’m so proud to be the governor of a state that celebrates diversity and love,” Polis wrote on Twitter Friday, sharing a photo of the flag tied by its four corners outside the capitol.
Earlier this month, Polis took to his personal Twitter account to celebrate Pride Month with a reminder that Glenn Burke, a gay former Major League Baseball player, came up with the “high-five” in 1977.
On the eve of Pride Month, Polis signed into law a ban on psychotherapy that seeks to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of minors. Polis called the ban an appropriate way to celebrate historic strides made by Colorado’s LGBTQ community. “Happy Pride Month!” he told several dozen activists and lawmakers at a Capitol signing ceremony.
“Colorado has joined a growing list of states that have banned so-called conversion therapy,” he said in a separate statement. “It’s a tortuous practice that has long been widely-discredited by medical and mental health professionals.”
Colorado became the 18th state — and the fourth this year, in addition to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico — to ban conversion therapy. Polis also signed into law a bill making it much easier for transgender Coloradans to update the gender on their birth certificates, identification documents, and driver’s licenses.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.