On their third date, a decade ago, Anna Sher and Fran Simon sat in a religious service holding hands. Months passed before, they confessed to each other that they both had imagined, during that date, their wedding ceremony.

They took a big step closer to that dream Tuesday as they prepared for a Colorado law to take effect at midnight that allows gay and lesbian couples to enter civil unions, a hard-won legal recognition. Before the women Tuesday tried on the wedding dresses they had worn at a commitment ceremony at the Denver Botanic Gardens in August 2005, they thought about the future, just as they had back then.

“Fran said we should get married before we had children,” said Anna Simon.

The couple have a son, Jeremy, who turns 6 in July.

They planned to wear the gowns to their midnight ceremony at Denver’s Wellington E. Webb Building to become one of the first same-sex couples in Colorado to obtain a civil union, after a dinner and reception that more than 700 people had planned to attend across the street from the municipal hall.

County clerks in Denver and Boulder were open at midnight to issue licenses, while clerks in other counties planned to begin issuing licenses at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver, were to be among the officiants.

About 500 guests enjoyed a pre-ceremony dinner and speeches at the McNichols Building in Civic Center.

“One Colorado will not stop fighting until the dignity of all Coloradans is respected,” the organization’s executive director, Brad Clark, told the formally dressed crowd.

The audience gave a standing ovation before and after an address by Hancock.

“We are one Colorado!” he shouted. They shouted back, “We are one Colorado!”

“We will not stop until our state residents … have full marriage equality,” Hancock said.

Opponents’ concerns

Opponents to civil unions said the passage of the law doesn’t change their concerns.

“Civil unions will necessarily redefine the fundamental unit of society, which is the family,” said Karna Swanson, spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver. “The church believes the institution of marriage is between a man and a woman, and this forms the basis of society.

“More than anything else, we need to have a sane and sober discussion about what the consequences are of redefining the structure of the family.”

Carrie Gordon Earl, senior director of issue analysis for government and public policy at Citizenlink, an affiliate of Colorado-based Focus on the Family, said in a statement Tuesday that civil unions pose a threat to religious freedom for those who oppose it.

“Law supporters failed to protect the religious freedom of small-business owners — bakers, photographers, florists — whose religious convictions prevent them from involvement in same-sex civil union celebrations,” she said.

Faith-based child-placement agencies — as well as judges, magistrates and other civil servants — asked to officiate a same-sex civil union, could be forced to decide between their faith and the law.

“Why the big push for civil unions?” Earl said. “The reason is to clear the way to legalize same-sex marriage.”

That step will have to wait for a national edict because Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment that banned same-sex marriage in 2006.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on the question of same-sex marriage in June.

For the first time in Colorado history, however, same-sex couples can now form civil unions and have the same legal privileges as other couples.

Moreover, the piece of paper validates their commitment in the eyes of the law.

Definition of family

For Denver residents Mark Thrun and Geoffrey Bateman, the fathers of two sons they share with a lesbian couple, it’s about recognizing their definition of family.

“We are a family, and to have our family honored and recognized is enormously important to us,” Thrun said. “We know that we are a family, but to have it validated in the eyes of the law is important.”

Thrun asked Bateman to marry him about eight years ago by a fountain in the Montmartre district of Paris. When they were in the City of Love again a couple of years later, Thrun carried matching watches in a box waiting for the right moment to add a symbol of their bond. The surprise was spoiled when Bateman, looking for a map, found them in a bag. They put on the watches and shared an embrace.

“I think both of us thought for a long time that’s all there would be,” Thrun said.

Both men took Tuesday afternoon off work — Thrun is a doctor at Denver Public Health; Bateman is an assistant professor at Regis University — and have no immediate plans for a honeymoon.

“We’re anxiously awaiting what the Supreme Court does,” Thrun said of the high court’s decision. “We may be planning a marriage.”

Fran and Anna Simon have been waiting a decade.

They met March 2, 2003, the way many couples do: on an online dating site. Their first date was at a dog park. Anna fell hard for Fran, who volunteered to take companion dogs to nursing homes and other places people need comfort.

“When I came home from that date, my housemate said, ‘Wow, something special happened to you today,’ ” Anna Simon said. “I saw her and knew within a few hours something was different. Something was special.”

On the second date, Fran joined her in love. They were in an antiques shop full of books, and from a collection of poems by Emily Dickinson, Anna recited one titled “I Took My Power in My Hand.”

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch