LGBT

Colorado Governor Signs Extreme Act: ‘Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals’

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed an extreme “transgender” bill into law that threaten the rights of all Coloradans in homes, schools, the workplace – and more.

House Bill 1312, Concerning Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, was opposed by thousands of Colorado citizens who signed petitions, attended rallies at the Capitol, testified against the measure and made phone calls and sent emails to the governor and legislators.

More than 700 people registered to give public testimony on this bill in the Senate Judiciary Committee – 80% of those individuals opposing the measure.

The Colorado General Assembly ignored opposition to the measure, as the act passed along party lines with a Senate vote of 20-14 and a House vote of 38-20.

Governor Polis signed the heavily contested measure administratively, meaning he allowed the bill to become a law without physically signing it, on Friday, May 16.

As reported by the Daily Citizen, the legislation received such severe opposition – even radical LGBT activist groups expressed concerns about it – that it was heavily amended by the Colorado General Assembly.

Despite those amendments, the law still targets free speech, religious freedom and parental rights.

HB 1312, was labeled the “Kelly Loving Act,” after a transgender-identified man who lived as a woman.

Loving was killed in the horrific Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs by a “transgender” man who identified as “non-binary.”

Here’s how the unconstitutional measure threatens a variety of rights:

  • The law forces educators and schools, both public and charter, to permit students to choose their own name, mandating that educators must lie if a student identifies as something other than their natural sex and chooses a name to match that identification.
  • It requires public and charter schools to allow “each student to choose from any of the options provided in the dress code policy.” So boys may wear girls clothing – and vice versa.
  • HB 1312 allows individuals to change their sex designation up to three times on identification documents. Courts may allow even more changes if “the sex designation change is required.”
  • County clerks must allow individuals to change their name on marriage licenses.
  • The law adds “chosen name” to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act and defines “gender expression” as “an individual’s way of reflecting and expressing the individual’s gender to the outside world, typically demonstrated through appearance, dress, chosen name, and how the individual chooses to be addressed.”

That last provision is especially important, as it adds the refusal of any citizen to use a “chosen name” to the state’s non-discrimination laws.

Teachers could be charged for refusing to acknowledge a student’s “transgender” status and could report parents who don’t affirm a child’s sexual identity confusion.

Colorado Child Protective Services and courts could consider a parent’s refusal to affirm their child’s disorder as discrimination, affecting custody rights and disputes. This was happening even before the act was passed.

Businesses and workers could be charged with discrimination if they fail to acknowledge the lie that a person can somehow be transformed into the opposite sex or a new, made-up “gender identity.”

In her testimony against HB 1312 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Daily Citizen writer Nicole Hunt excoriated the bill, saying, “This bill is misleading titled ‘Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals.’ A more accurate title would be ‘How to break up families and use the law to steal children from their parents.'”

By adding “chosen name” to the definition of gender expression,” parents could be viewed as discriminating against their own children.

Hunt stated the harms to children from pushing them toward transitioning.

“It would force parents to support dangerous, experimental drugs, hormones and surgeries for their children struggling with sexual identity confusion.”

“This is an obvious attempt to force state-sponsored radical gender ideology speech on Colorado families and it’s unconstitutional.”

She added, “Focus on the Family firmly believes that parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of their children including their healthcare decisions and their moral or religious training.”

Real protections for civil rights don’t take away the civil rights of others – as HB 1312 does. Opponents are already planning lawsuits against the act to protect Coloradans rights.

Related Articles and Resources

Colorado Legislature Passes Radical ‘Transgender’ Bill With Amendments

Education Department Warns Colorado: Children ‘Do Not Belong to Government’

Focus on the Family Testifies Against Nightmare Bill, Colorado’s Radical ‘Trans’ Legislation Advances

Oppose Colorado’s Radical Abortion and ‘Transgender Rights’ Legislation

Radical Colorado ‘Transgender’ Bill Threatens Parents’ Rights and Free Speech

Image from Shutterstock.

A Useful Summary of Trump Administration Actions Against Gender Ideology

Genspect, a non-partisan, international organization founded in 2021 by Irish psychotherapist Stella O’Malley, actively promotes “a healthy, evidence-based approach to sex and gender.” They seek non-medicalized solutions to gender distress, including support for non-medical gender transitions. Their mission statement:

At Genspect, our mission is to support individuals in expressing their true selves without unnecessary medical interventions. We emphasize the importance of psychological and social support grounded in scientific integrity, striving to create a world where gender non-conformity is respected and understood.

Of course, there are things in this stated mission – like respecting gender non-conformity – that Focus on the Family cannot support. However, we have generally appreciated important parts of their work as co-belligerents in the overall fight to regain some sanity in the international onslaught of gender deception and the medicalization of children.

With this caveat, we want to commend a very helpful, short report Genspect has just produced that is worthy of all pro-family citizens’ attention and perusal.

This useful resource, from Genspect USA, is a complete and useful summary of the various strong actions the second Trump administration has taken toward returning the United States to objective sanity on the basics of biology. And regardless of your feelings about President Trump, each of these executive actions are necessary and laudatory.

The report also catalogues the fourteen legal challenges that have been filed against these common-sense measures, largely by activist organizations and judges.

Daily Citizen has documented, explained and applauded these actions from executive orders and government agencies as they happened: here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Yes, we have been busy because the President and his appointees have been busy in support of issues that affect families.

We thank Genspect USA for fully documenting and appreciating the great work done by our nation’s current executive office to protect God’s very good creation of male and female. This national return to reality is essential and must continue.

You can find Genspect’s report here.

Boise and Salt Lake City Adopt Pride Flags as ‘Official’ City Flags

Defying Idaho and Utah laws, Boise and Salt Lake City adopted the LGBT Pride flag as official city flags. Currently, both states ban unofficial flags on government owned properties.

Unlike state and city flags, which represent all legal residents, Pride flags are inherently divisive; they honor a small group of people for no other reason than their sexual attractions, behaviors and identities.

Pride flags also are an affront to people of faith, who believe God’s creation of humanity in His image – male or female – and who believe in His good design for marriage between a husband and wife, which creates the best environment for raising children.

Governor Brad Little (Idaho) signed a law banning non-official flags on April 3, covering state, county, municipal and school properties. But Boise kept a Pride flag flying over the city hall ever since.

The Utah mandate became law March 27, without Governor Spencer Cox’s signature. Cox continued “to have serious concerns with the policy but chose not to reject it because his veto would likely be overridden by the Republican-controlled Legislature,” Associated Press reported.

The move was a coordinated effort by both cities’ mayors, with Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall offering each other support, AP stated.

In a May 6 Boise City Council meeting, as reported by Fox News, McLean said:

On April 28 I signed an official proclamation that retroactively established three flags as official Boise flags: the blue flag, the one we love, with the monochrome image of the Capitol building and the words “Boise, City of Trees”; the rainbow flag, commonly referred to as the Pride flag, and the flag that represents and gives voice to the fact that we are a welcoming city; and a flag representing National Donate Life Month [promoting organ, eye and tissue donations].

One speaker said the Pride flag was related to “diversity, equity and inclusion,” which she called “right and just” and “fundamental to America,” representing “our values sewn in color and cloth.”

While Christians practice kindness and offer grace to all people, the Pride flag certainly doesn’t represent our moral and sexual values.

Mendenhall also pointed to “diversity,” explaining her decision to propose the measure to the city council,

“My sincere intent is not to provoke or cause division. My intent is to represent our city’s values and honor our dear diverse residents who make up this beautiful city and the legacy of pain and progress that they have endured.”

Both mayors don’t understand that Pride flags cause deep discord, promoting a sexualized, socio-political agenda. Idaho Representative Heather Scott, who sponsored the state bill banning non-official flags, explained the purpose behind it, saying “We don’t want government to be promoting division or political ideology or any social movements.”

Idaho’s law does not have an enforcement mechanism, while the Utah law can lead to fines of $500 a day for governmental entities that flout the law.

Related Articles and Resources

Countering The Cultural Confusion: Answering Frequently Asked Questions About Homosexuality

Five Things for Christians to Remember During ‘LGBT Pride Month’

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation and Referrals

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Focus on the Family: Understanding Homosexuality

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Navigating ‘LGBT Pride Month’ – How Should Parents Respond?

There is No Pride in Denying Reality or the Image of God in Humanity

What Does the Bible Say About Homosexuality? When Children Encounter ‘LGBT Pride’: Resources for Parents

Pedophilia’s Current Makeover

There is hardly anything the sexual revolution has imagined that has not gained general acceptance by liberally minded folks. The only rule that under girds their sexual ethic is consent. As long as two or more adults fully consent, it gets two-thumbs up from sex revolutionaries. This is what we call a minimalist ethic.

This is why pedophilia is the last hold-out to not have received a cheery green light. Children cannot properly consent. And besides, adults attracted to children are just creepy. But one group is seeking to change that perception.

They held a “professional conference” in an undisclosed location in Ohio just days ago. One of the first things this group did was land on a new name for pedophiles. The old one just had too much bad baggage associated with it for some reason. So, the new make-over is Minor Attracted Persons or MAPs for short.

Never mind that MAPs are nearly all men. “Persons” seems like a broader, more protected class, an essential move in winning favor and protection to your side

The group’s primary stated goals for this recent “Demystifying and Thriving” conference were:

  • Increase competence and cultural humility in providing affirming, compassionate care for MAPs.
  • Recognize the different levels of stigma and bias and their effects on MAPs and providers.
  • Identify and discuss approaches that promote wellness and thriving among MAPs.

This is all an effort to depathologized the pedophilic person, frame them as victims of “stigma” and have the larger society develop some sense of compassion for such people. After all, the organizers explain, “all people should recognize that no one chooses to be attracted to children.” They are just born that way, right? Lady Gaga has already told us all about that. What is more, academic sources tell us pedophilia is “a type of sexual orientation in men.” A “sexual age orientation.” How can you blame someone for something nature gave them, right?

The organization’s leaders claim, “Vilifying [MAPs] for their feelings is unjust and harmful; it forces them into lives of secrecy and prevents them from getting help when needed, ultimately putting children at risk.” Yes, it’s all about the children … and the adults who are sexually attracted to them.

This is not their first effort. The group’s 2019 Workshop in Baltimore was focused on “Compassionate and Informed Approaches for Supporting Minor-Attracted People.”

If all this seems like they are borrowing a page from the rhetorical and political successes of the movement to mainstream homosexuality and transgenderism, it is not your imagination.

A scholarly review from 2024 examining the creation and use of the term “Minor Attracted Persons” notes similarities borrowed from homosexuality’s playbook: “MAPs scholarship presents pedophiles as an oppressed sexual minority subject to undue discrimination and oppression.” The review notes unapprovingly, “This framing draws, implicitly and explicitly, on controversial comparisons between pedophilia and same-sex attraction.”

The Australian scholars authoring this review also warn of “strong claims in the MAPs literature that the stigmatization of sexual interest in children is the primary driver of child sexual abuse, and thus sexual interest in children should be socially and culturally normalized.”

Be warned. These authors explain, “‘MAPs’ is part of the nomenclature of contemporary pro-pedophile movements seeking social and legal rights for those with a sexual interest in children and is not a neutral or scientific synonym for pedophile.”

Christina Buttons, an investigative reporter for the Manhattan Institute, wrote recently on this slippery makeover of those sexually attracted to our children. She warns that progressive activists like this “are recasting pedophilic attraction as something to be accepted rather than contained.” She adds, “In doing so, they risk collapsing critical moral distinctions and shifting the focus away from the safety and well-being of children – the population most in need of protection.”

Buttons is correct. This is a very deceptive and disturbing effort that everyone who cares for children and social safety should be mindful of and never fall for.

Related Articles and Resources

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HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an important evaluation of the evidence for how best to treat children and adolescents with “gender dysphoria.”

Not surprisingly, the comprehensive review, Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria Review of Evidence and Best Practices, showed serious problems with treating minors with “gender-affirming care,” which can include body damaging, experimental and risky puberty suppressants, hormones and surgeries.

A news release from HHS clearly explained the troubling paucity of evidence and grave risks for confused children who receive these medical interventions:

This review, informed by an evidence-based medicine approach, reveals serious concerns about medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, that attempt to transition children and adolescents away from their sex.

The review highlights a growing body of evidence pointing to significant risks – including irreversible harms such as infertility – while finding very weak evidence of benefit. That weakness has been a consistent finding of systematic reviews of evidence around the world.

Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria is 409 pages long and covers everything from the history of transgender medicine to current treatment practices to the effects of harmful medical interventions on minors. It’s release was accompanied by a 173-page appendix which explained the methodology and gave a synthesis of the evidence.

Director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Jay Bhattacharya emphasized the primary goal in treating children with sexual identity confusion should be to safeguard their health.

He said, “Our duty is to protect our nation’s children – not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions. We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”

The report explains that activist agenda comes from groups like the Endocrine Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). These groups have labeled their treatment “gender-affirming care,” which means affirming a child’s sexual identity confusion and allowing the child to try to live as the opposite sex, or a combination of the two sexes, or no sex, or some self-defined, pseudo “gender.”

These minors are then encouraged to use dangerous and powerful puberty blockers, proceed to body-damaging opposite sex hormones, and then undergo irreversible surgeries. An executive summary of the literature review states the seriousness of these treatments for children who have nothing wrong with their brains or bodies:

Nevertheless, the “gender-affirming” model of care includes irreversible endocrine and surgical interventions on minors with no physical pathology.

These interventions carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.

The executive summary explains that there is little evidence that “gender-affirming” care is even helpful.

“Meanwhile, systematic reviews of the evidence have revealed deep uncertainty about the purported benefits of these interventions.”

One section of the extensive report details the “International Retreat from the ‘Gender-Affirming’ Model,” known as the Dutch Protocol, first published in 2006, which advocated for “gender-affirming care.” This medicalized approach initially expanded, based on two flawed, unreplicated studies with “serious limitations.”

In 2015, the meta-analysis explains, the number of youth identifying as “transgender” surged dramatically, “first gradually, then suddenly,” with a large number of female adolescents wanting to live as boys.

Given its shaky foundation researchers in different countries began conducting their own studies of “gender-affirming care,” and the report details the growing international movement away from using medical interventions to modify children’s bodies:

Finland subsequently became the first country to revise its national guidelines, sharply limiting medical interventions based on the findings of an SR [systematic review]. In the years that followed, other countries began conducting their own evaluations of the evidence and arrived at similar conclusions.

A global trend has since emerged, away from use of PBs [puberty blockers], CSH [cross-sex hormones], and surgeries in youth with GD [gender dysphoria].

Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria describes England’s review of “pediatric gender medicine” that began in 2020, with the final report, The Cass Review released in 2024. This led to the closing of the country’s Gender Identity Development Service and a move away from puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries for children.

The new HHS report lists other countries that have stopped or limited these harmful, disfiguring treatments, including Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, adding,

“Most recently, hormonal interventions have been restricted in Brazil, Chile, the province of Alberta in Canada, and the state of Queensland in Australia.”

The meta-analysis makes clear that it is not a clinical practice guideline, while emphasizing it “describes the very low-quality evidence underpinning treatment approaches in pediatric gender medicine” and “contains an extensive description of potential or plausible harms associated with certain treatment options (namely, hormonal interventions and surgeries), some of which are significant.”

It concludes that current transgender medical interventions for children and adolescents “are inconsistent with widely endorsed principles of medical ethics.”

There’s much more in Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria Review of Evidence and Best Practices, and the Daily Citizen will detail these findings in the weeks ahead.

Related Articles and Resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with transgenderism, Focus on the Family offers a one-time complimentary consultation with our ministry’s professionally trained counseling staff. The consultation is free due to generous donor support.

To reach Focus on the Family’s counseling service by phone, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time). Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor to return a call to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Cakegender? Genderfaun? Orbgender?

Colorado Counselor Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Free Speech Case

Counseling for Sexual Identity Concerns: A Measured, Careful, and Compassionate Approach.

The Journey Back to My True Identity

New Video Equips Parents and Counselors to Help ‘Gender Dysphoric’ Children

Questioning Drugs, Hormones and Surgery for Youth Confused about Their Sexual Identity

The Shifting Ground of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

UK Bans Puberty Blockers for ‘Transgender’ Minors

U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures That U.S. Still Defends

What is ‘Gender Identity’