News (USA)

Colorado’s First Gentleman hospitalized with worsening COVID infection

Jared Polis (left) and partner Marlon Reis
Jared Polis (left) and partner Marlon Reis Photo: Polis for Colorado

Colorado’s First Gentleman Marlon Reis has been hospitalized after his coronavirus infection worsened while out Gov. Jared Polis (D) continues to have mild syndromes. The spouses were diagnosed late last month.

The two were isolated at home when Reis developed complications breathing. Polis drove him to the hospital in his own vehicle.

Related: 170 trans inmates are suing out Gov. Jared Polis for rape & assault in Colorado’s prisons

“I think we had mild symptoms. I’ve had trouble sleeping and Marlon had headaches for a couple of days, but I think we’re through it,” Polis told Colorado Matter last week.

People who have contracted the deadly virus often feel better after mild symptoms only to develop more severe complications in a few days.

Reis developed a severe cough over the weekend and started having trouble breathing.

Polis has continued to govern while quarantined. He has held video press conferences and signed legislation on camera as well. He disinfected the signed bills before returning them. He has not experienced any additional symptoms.

Polis has faced stiff pushback from Republicans in his state because of measures he took to slow the spread of the pandemic.

Colorado House Minority Leader Patrick Neville (R), for example, said in a talk radio interview in April that stay-at-home orders and other measures taken by local governments are, in general, part of a “Gestapo-like mentality.”

“As a Jewish American who lost family in the Holocaust, I’m offended by any comparison to Nazism,” Polis said at a later press event.

“I should have said authoritarian, not Gestapo,” Neville told the Denver Post in response to the governor’s reaction. “And I think authoritarian is still accurate.”

In another incident, Loveland, Colorado resident Michael Drewer painted “OPEN OUR GYMS FAGGOT” on his truck in response to the state closing businesses to limit the spread of the virus.

The pandemic is hitting Colorado particularly hard. Last week, Polis issued an executive order that allowed hospitals that are at capacity to refuse new admissions. An estimated one in 49 residents of the state had the virus last week, according to state officials.

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