transgender

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’

Fairfax County High School: ‘A Is for Abortion’ – A Cautionary Tale for Parents

A high school in Fairfax County, Virginia, celebrated Women’s History Month with a hallway decorated by “school administrators and teachers … with a special, leftist rendition of the alphabet” that included the phrase, “A is for Abortion,” The Daily Signal reported.

The incident at West Springfield High School highlights the need for parental involvement in their children’s education – not just in Northern Virginia, but across the country.

Parents are responsible for their children’s education, and they must be engaged in order to counteract and protect children from indoctrination in woke ideologies.

The “ABCs to ME” display at West Springfield also included uplifting sayings for students like “Q is for Queer,” “M is for Mansplain” and “F is for Femicide,”

That last sign directly contradicts the “A is for Abortion” poster, given that more than 63 million infants have been killed in the U.S. since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, and more than half of these are female.

Millions of preborn girls aborted – that is real femicide.

That’s not even mentioning the spiritual, physical, mental and emotional harms to women who abort their preborn children.

Each letter of the alphabet in the display included two signs with different words or phrases representing each letter. So, for example, another A sign said, “A is for Athletes,” showing pictures of female athletes.

Without any apparent awareness of the irony, a different sign said, “T is for Trans Women.” So the school applauds female athletes – but also the boys who claim to be women who rob real teen girls of athletic opportunities, victories and scholarships, as well as assaulting their safety and privacy in girls restrooms, showers and locker rooms.

Other objectionable posters had slogans like “P is for Patriarchy,” “P is for Persecution,” “O is for Objectification” and “Z is for male gaZe.” In addition to playing fast and loose with the alphabet, the sloganeering paints all men as the enemy.

What a treat it must’ve been for high school boys to walk down the school hallway and seen posters denigrating them. The educators who posted the sign might as well have had pictures of teen boys with a sign that said, “E is for Enemy.”

The alphabet portrays a huge problem with “progressive” ideology – it separates humans into identity groups and pits them against each other. Why not simply celebrate the accomplishments of women during Women’s History Month, instead of attacking boys and men?

The dogmatic, simplistic little sayings also spread confusion. Are women victors – “L is for Limitless,” “O is for Olympian” and “T is for Triumph,” or are they victims – “G is for Gaslight” and “P is for Persecution”?

This is the latest in a list of incidents where the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) District has implemented policies that sexualize, confuse and harm children, as the Daily Citizen has previously reported:

  • In 2021, Stacy Langton, a mother of six, with the two oldest attending Fairfax High School. She made headlines for reading aloud portions of sexually explicit books from the school library at a school board meeting. The books, including Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison and Gender Queer: A Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, include explicit illustrations of oral sex and masturbation, as well as graphic descriptions of sex between men and children. The school banned her from entering the library.
  • That same year, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) announced it was removing the two books from school libraries. At the time, Lawn Boy was available in 11 FCPS high schools, while Gender Queer was available at 7 schools. But after reviewing the books, the district placed the sexually explicit materials back on school library shelves.
  • In March 2024, as part of its celebration of “Neurodiversity Affirmation Week,” district staff designed posters that were “were ‘hung in each of our schools as a constant reminder of the uniqueness of human thought,’” reported Parents Defending Education, a parental rights advocacy group. “Neurodiversity” is not a medical term, but it is used by activists to portray brain functioning issues as “normal variations.” It usually encompasses issues like autism, dyslexia and obsessive compulsive disorder. “However,” the group added, “the district’s poster that students saw also attempts to extend the meaning of neurodiversity to include ‘gender,’ ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘ethnicity,’ ‘race,’ and ‘religion/spirituality.’”
  • FCPS chose to ignore parents opposition to teaching children about “gender identity” in its Family Live Education program. More than 80% of parents responded to a district survey saying they did not support this teaching. But as one parent said, when the district wants to do something, ““they appoint a committee filled with people with viewpoints to get the outcome they want, ask for community feedback, then ignore and manipulate the feedback.”

It’s clear that Fairfax schools have embraced radical, sexualized ideology. Again, this spotlights the great need for parents to be involved in their local schools.

The woke alphabet posters also exemplify why educational freedom for all students is desperately needed in every state. Children should be able to attend schools that support their family’s values and avoid schools that inculcate them into harmful, false ideologies.

Related Articles and Resources

Focus on the Family’s free parenting resource Equipping Parents for Back to School explains issues like educational freedom, parental rights in education, critical race theory, sexual education, and religious freedom and free speech in schools. It’s a terrific resource for parents who want to advocate for their children and guide them toward academic success.

Department of Education Blew $1 Billion on DEI – Here’s Why It Matters

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Fairfax County Puts Obscene Books Back in School Libraries

Fairfax School Board Votes to Suspend Students for ‘Maliciously Misgendering’ Other Students

Indoctrination Station: New York State Education Department Pushes Critical Theory on Students

Parents Support Core Subjects, Keeping Males out of Female Sports

Teachers are Invaluable, But They Aren’t Our Children’s Parents

Trump Ends Radical Indoctrination, Promotes Education Freedom

Virginia School District Ignore Parents Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

Image from Shutterstock.

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

“Gender dysphoria” is the psychiatric term for a mental health disorder. Individuals have thoughts and feelings that cause them to reject their bodily male or female sex; they attempt to identify as either the opposite sex, neither or something in-between.

For decades now, transgender activists and their allies claim the only way to help those struggling with this confusion is to agree with them. They claim we must help these individuals attempt to live and look like the opposite sex through social transitioning and damaging medical interventions.

But there are alternatives.

Julie Hamilton, a licensed marriage and family therapist with a private practice in South Florida, provides this much-needed alternative.

Gender Identity 101, offers guidance for parents and therapists who want to help children embrace their bodily masculinity or femininity. Hamilton has been practicing therapy since 1995 and educating others about sexuality and “gender” since 2003.

Gender Identity 101 gives a Christian and therapeutic view of sexual identity concerns, helps parents and therapists understand the issues surrounding transgenderism and explains the best approach for gender dysphoric children and teens.

One Christian counselor who previewed the video told the Daily Citizen:

“This was an extremely well-produced video. I believe this video would be an excellent resource. … I dare say our constituents would have lots to learn and would come away both encouraged and empowered.”

In addition to Hamilton, the video features Dr. Susan Bradley, a psychiatrist, and psychologist Kenneth Zucker. The curriculum also provides “stories from those who experienced gender insecurity or gender dysphoria in their childhood.”

“Drs. Kenneth Zucker and Susan Bradley are two of the world’s leading experts on gender dysphoria,” Hamilton explains, adding,

“Their extensive experience dates back to the 1970s when Dr. Bradley opened one of the first pediatric gender clinics in North America. Dr. Zucker began working there as a graduate student at that time and later became its director.”

“They have treated hundreds of children and teenagers over the years, researching and publishing for decades on this topic.”

Hamilton explains the three main approaches to gender dysphoria in childhood:

  1. “Gender-Affirming” Care.
  2. Watchful Waiting.
  3. Active Therapeutic Approach.

The first affirms the child, in their belief, that they are a different sex or “gender.” It encourages the disorder, first with “social transitioning,” where a child attempts to live as the opposite sex, usually changing their name, dress and hairstyle.

This usually then leads to the use of experimental, damaging medical interventions: puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries.

The second approach waits to see if the child will outgrow the condition, as parents try “not to do too much one way or the other when it came to little kids,” Zucker explained. The problem with this, he added, is that “parents are always doing things with their kids.”

In other words, “watchful waiting” is an impossibility in the real world.

As Hamilton explains, “Researchers have found that up to 90% of children who are not encouraged to become the opposite sex will outgrow the desire to be the opposite sex by the time they reach adulthood.” Many of these children will go on to struggle with homosexuality.

Hamilton explains the third option,

“The active psychotherapeutic approach is when a professional assists the child in dealing with the underlying issues associated with gender dysphoria.”

This is the approach she recommends and goes on to explain in the video.

“Sadly, the active psychotherapeutic approach has often been mischaracterized as so-called conversion therapy, a term that has become synonymous with abusive practices,” Hamilton states.

“But in reality, it’s simply talk therapy, like talk therapy for any other issue. … Ironically, this characterization ends up hurting clients because it discourages them from pursuing professional help for becoming secure in their gender or reducing unwanted same-sex attractions.”

She adds, “Therapy can be quite effective in helping children with these issues.” 

Children and teens struggling with sexual identity confusion very often have underlying factors contributing to this issue. Hamilton, Zucker and Bradley go on to describe some of these, and those who wrestled with their sexual identity give personal examples of how these issues played out in their own lives.

For younger children, these factors can include sex-atypical personality characteristics, misconceptions about gender, parent-child relationships, peer relationships, and problematic family psychodynamics.

For older adolescents, teens and young adults, Hamilton describes three groups who develop late-onset gender dysphoria – although there can be some overlap between these groups. Dr. Zucker explains these are “new subgroups of adolescents” that have become prominent in the last 15 years or so.  

Some teen and young adult males who did not struggle with sexual identity confusion as children, Zucker explains, develop “transvestic fetishism, which is sexual arousal associated with cross-dressing. Or what we call autogynephilia, sexual arousal at the thought of being a woman … or having female sexual anatomy or … simply behaving like a woman.”  

A second group are autistic children and teens, where typical traits like black and white thinking, social challenges, lack of relational understanding, difficulty with self-regulation, or thoughts of being “different” from others can lead to embracing the transgender subculture as a way to feel welcome and accepted.

The final group is usually teen girls or young women who develop what some researchers call Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria. Some of these may be on the autism spectrum. In addition, most have other co-occurring factors, such as depression, anxiety, suicidality, trauma or body image issues.

The desire to live as the opposite sex can also be exacerbated by transgender-identified friend groups and activist communities on the internet.

Gender Identity 101 goes on to describe how parents and therapists can help those struggling with these concerns. Hamilton, Bradley and Zucker discuss different contributing factors and how counselors and parents can address these issues.

The video ends with explanations from Christians who had sexual identify confusion but came to healing and wholeness.

Along with finding help through counseling, Christian practices like prayer, confession and repentance, deep experiences with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, and the healing grace of love, truth and acceptance are also discussed as effective.

Gender Identity 101 is a helpful tool for parents and counselors, but it also provides encouragement and insight for those struggling with sexual identity confusion, pastors, other family members and the full body of Christ.

Related Articles and Resources

If you or someone you know is struggling with homosexuality or 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.

Can Minors Receive Counseling Help for Unwanted Same-Sex Attraction or Sexual Identity Confusion? Federal Courts Split on Local Prohibitions.

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

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

Does Focus on the Family Promote “Gay Conversion Therapy”?

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation & Referrals; Understanding Homosexuality; Transgender Resources; and Homosexuality Resources

Freedom from Homosexuality – What’s the Controversy?

Therapy Bans Threaten Religious Freedom, Free Speech and Parental Rights

What Is ‘Conversion Therapy’?

How Gender Activism Harms Science

Gender activists have hijacked and misused science for decades to push their novel views of male and female. Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright highlights another new example of this abuse on his site, Reality’s Last Stand. Involving: intersex whales.

Wright calls the story “a whale of a tale.” It comes from a recent article over at the science site bioGraphic centered on the discovery of “a whale with unusual XXY chromosomes,” which Wright says the author “twisted … to promote a pseudoscientific political narrative.” The author seems to present intersex as some helpful and celebratory third way of being, which is deceptive. She explains,

“While intersex animals are often infertile and unable to produce offspring to help a population grow, [one scholar says] that in social species such as whales, intersex animals likely play important nonreproductive roles that benefit the population in other ways.”

This is fanciful thinking, presenting this extremely rare anomaly as proof, as the author explains, that “animals that don’t fall neatly into a male-female binary” and provides “another challenge to rigid definitions of sex.”

Of course, this discovery does neither. The author’s assertions reveal an ideology rather than any objective scientific chops.

She concludes, “What society deems normal is a box carefully drawn around a wild and messy world, and each individual who can’t be contained offers a fascinating glimpse at nature’s true diversity.”

Society does not deem the male-female binary normal. Science does, and it does so vividly. Biology itself is expressly rooted in the male-female binary or what biologists call sexual dimorphism. The bioGraphic article admits this when it states, “Intersex animals are rare across species.” Highlighting the absolute exceptionality of this new whale discovery proves the fact.

Being intersex is simply a maladaptation of normal sex development of male or female. Only about 0.018% of humans can be classified as intersex due to physiological maladaptation of their sex organs or chromosomes. It is certainly not a third sex or gender.

Wright correctly explains,

“Instead of appreciating this unique whale as a fascinating example of Klinefelter syndrome in a non-human animal, activist scientists exploit these rare discoveries to push an agenda intended to ‘queer’ and destabilize basic biological facts.”

He confesses, “It’s genuinely frustrating that real scientific discoveries are constantly hijacked by activists” to tell ideological falsehoods. Science and its credibility end up suffering as a result. And none of us are smarter for it.

Related Articles and Resources

Even Hard-Boiled Evolutionists are Standing Strong Against Gender Madness

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

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

Why Focus on the Family Cares About the Gender Issue?

Yes, Sexuality and Gender Are Undeniable Gospel Issues

How Science and Faith Can Defeat Gender Ideology – Parts One and Part Two

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

What Does it Mean to Be Trans Anyway?

Olympic Track and Field Protects Women. Why Won’t Other Sports Do the Same?

All women competing in Olympic track and field events will now be required to confirm their gender via a cheek swab or dry blood DNA test.

Sebastian Coe, who heads up World Athletics, the governing body of track, was clear-headed and resolute in announcing the new policy.

“We’re not just talking about the integrity of female women’s sport, but actually guaranteeing it,” Coe said. “And this, we feel, is a really important way of providing confidence and maintaining that absolute focus on the integrity of competition.”

Inexplicably, the International Olympic Committee has elected to leave this issue up to each sport’s international federation.

It’s this leadership vacuum that not only threatens the integrity of individual sports but also jeopardizes the health and safety of the athletes themselves.

Readers will remember Imane Khelif, the Algerian male Olympic boxer who competed against women. Khelif was awarded a gold medal, despite having been disqualified by the International Boxing Association a few years earlier after tests revealed Imane with an XY chromosome.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) went along with Khelif’s charade and allowed the boxer to punch away on female athletes.

Track and Field has been navigating this gender controversy since 2009 when Caster Semenya, a South African athlete with naturally high testosterone levels, first won a gold medal in 800 meters at the World Championships.

Semenya has a condition called 5a-Reductase 2 deficiency, the same condition Khelif reportedly has been diagnosed with. Now 34 years of age, the track and field star was ordered in 2019 to suppress testosterone levels – but refused.

As the Daily Citizen’s Emily Washburn has previously reported:

5-alpha is a terrible, disorienting disorder. It also categorically disqualifies sufferers from participating in female sports … Khelif had XY chromosomes, normal male levels of testosterone and male reproductive organs. That means he has the same chromosomal and hormonal advantages all men have over women athletically, including heavier bones, bulkier muscles, broader shoulder and larger hearts and lungs.

But at the heart of the new track policy isn’t really the exceptions and the outliers but rather those male athletes who seem determined to game the system and by doing so, achieve a competitive advantage.

Be aware that you’ll be reading in the coming days and weeks that World Athletics is banning “transwomen athletes” – but such a claim isn’t true. That’s because there’s no such thing as a “transwoman” – there are just two genders, male and female. Just because a man is pretending to be a woman doesn’t make it so.

Human Rights Watch and other critics have described DNA testing rules of female athletes as abusive, harmful, discriminatory and accusatory.

It’s true that male athletes are not similarly tested, but women masquerading as men provides no competitive advantage. And complaining that such testing portrays women as “cheats” belies the reality of other similar checks such as screenings for performance enhancing drugs.

Trust but verify.

It’s been 125 years since women first appeared in the 1900 Olympics in Paris. There were just 22 of them out of a total of 997 athletes. These commonsense policies being implemented in Track and Field will ensure that the distinctiveness of female competition will be maintained and protected in the upcoming Summer Olympic games in Los Angeles in 2028.

This is a good thing, and every other Olympic sport should race to follow suit.