Radical Colorado ‘Transgender’ Bill Threatens Parents’ Rights and Free Speech
A radical bill in Colorado, under the guise of providing “legal protections for transgender individuals,” is being rushed through the General Assembly by activist legislators. They are the same ones who call opponents of the bill “hate groups,” equating them with the KKK, and said such group echo “hateful rhetoric … against the trans community.”
While supporters claimed the bill is about “civil rights,” it directly threatens parent-child relationships, schools and businesses. The proposed legislation unconstitutionally limits free speech, religious freedom, and parents’ rights to provide for the care, nurturing, and moral and religious upbringing of their children.
Real civil rights don’t take away rights from others.
HB 1312, “Concerning Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals,” actually gives special rights to those with a psychiatric condition listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR), as “gender dysphoria.”
The bill was introduced late in the day on Friday, March 28. On Monday a committee hearing was scheduled for the next day, April 2, giving opponents little time to rally opposition. While more than 100 people testified against the legislation, the vote passed out of committee with a 7-4 vote along party lines.
The legislation seeks to force parents, schools and businesses to kowtow to false and harmful transgender ideology.
One of those who rallied the troops against the bill was Erin Lee, who began exposing the gender cult in Colorado schools after a middle school encouraged her daughter to embrace sexual identity confusion.
Typically, Colorado legislators talk about proposed measures with stakeholders – those who have an interest in the legislation. Witnesses testified the bill had “been worked on for over a year,” but state Representative Jarvis Caldwell said he had just learned about the legislation on Monday, April 1.
Jarvis asked if other stakeholders, “like parent groups that are not a part of the LGBT community,” were consulted.
Representative Yara Zokaie, a former community organizer, responded with contempt for conservatives and Christians, saying:
“A well stakeholdered [sic] bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups. And we don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion.”
Representative Javier Mabrey concurred, saying, “But I agree, there’s no reason to go to the table with people who are echoing the hateful rhetoric going around about the trans community.”
So only transgender activists and ideologues were consulted about the bill.
Here are explanations of several sections of HB 1312, which is really eight bills rolled into one, noting how different provisions negatively affect basic constitutional rights.
Section 2: When a parent is involved in a custody case before a court, and their child insists he or she is a different “gender” or sex, the bill declares that it is “coercive control” – child abuse – if the parent does not affirm the child’s mental, psychological and emotional confusion. The measure’s summary of this section says:
When making child custody decisions and determining the best interests of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control.
A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child.
According to HB 1312:
“Deadname” means to purposefully, and with the intent to disregard the individual’s gender identity or gender expression, refer to an individual by their birth name rather than their chosen name. …
“Misgender” means to purposefully, and with the intent to disregard the individual’s gender identity or gender expression, refer to an individual using an honorific or pronoun that conflicts with the individual’s gender identity or gender expression.
Parents, who knew their child’s sex from birth and named their child, are forced to use the new name and pronouns chosen by their child.
The bill violates parental rights and infringes on their First Amendment rights to free speech and religious liberty.
Section 3: HB 1312 prohibits Colorado courts with complying with “another state’s law that authorizes a state agency to remove a child from the child’s parent or guardian because the parent or guardian allowed the child to receive gender-affirming health-care services.”
In other words, Colorado will now be a destination state for a parent who wants to harm his or her child with irreversible, body-damaging drugs, hormones and surgeries. Colorado courts may not cooperate with the parent’s home state – even if that state has taken custody away from that parent.
Sections 4, 5 and 6: Public schools with dress codes “must not create or enforce any rules based on gender and must allow each student to abide by any variation of the dress code,” the bill’s summary states. Schools must also allow students to change their names from their given, legal name. The new law applies to charter schools.
Finally, Sections 8 and 9 add “deadnaming” and “misgendering” to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, “prohibiting these discriminatory acts in places of public accommodation.”
The bill forces people to support false and damaging gender ideology. It requires employees and businesses to agree that it is possible to change one’s sex, violating the religious freedom of many.
All of Colorado must now “collaborate with a mental disorder,” as Psychiatrist Paul McHugh wrote.
HB 25-1312, “Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals,” is likely to pass the full House. One it has been assigned to a Senate committee, concerned citizens may learn about how to participate in Colorado’s legislative process and sign up to testify.
Related Articles and Resources
Erin Lee tells the story of fighting gender ideology in her daughter’s school.
American College of Pediatricians: No Benefits From ‘Gender-Affirming’ Interventions
Are Sex and Gender Different Things?
Mom Files Lawsuit Against School District for ‘Transitioning’ Daughter Without Her Consent
A Singularly Christian View of the Transgender Problem
‘Trust the Science’ About ‘Gender-Affirming Care.’ What Science?
What Are Male and Female in God’s Story?
Why a Trans Woman is a Not a Woman
‘The WPATH Files’ Exposes ‘Surgical and Hormonal Experiments on Children’
The WPATH Files – Transgender Interventions Are ‘Unethical Medical Experiments’
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