Colorado's Genderist Fervor

The Draconian Regime of HB25 1312

On April 29^th, I joined hundreds of others in submitting written testimony in opposition to House Bill HB25 1312, which its sponsors described as “expanding anti-discrimination protections for transgender individuals” in the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA). Despite fierce opposition, it was enacted on May 6th. This is a monstrous, unconstitutional law. Its provisions horrify many Coloradans, especially parents. Let’s look at a few of them.

Section 2 provides that, 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.

So if 13-year-old Sally now calls herself “John,” the parent who refuses to use wrong-sex pronouns and consistently says “Sally” is in danger of losing custody.

Section 3 prohibits a Colorado court from applying or giving any force or effect to 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.

This seems to mean that if a parent in Wyoming authorized a state agency to remove a child from a parent who was enabling pediatric gender medicine and the two cross into Colorado, the child will stay with that enabling parent and the medical interventions will go ahead. This makes Colorado a haven for “Transhausen by proxy” parents.

Sections 7 and 8 define deadnaming and misgendering as discriminatory acts in CADA and prohibit these discriminatory acts in places of public accommodation [workplaces, schools, and other spaces covered by Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws] unless using the legal name is required by law, for identification purposes. These sections affect all parents, teachers, service providers, employers, and employees throughout the state and are understandably the two sections to have attracted most criticism.

So if 7-year-old Felicity tells her teacher she is now called Ryan, the teacher must comply, pronouns and all, with young Felicity’s edict – whatever her parents think about it. If your colleague James says he is now Gloria – and “uses she/her pronouns,” you have to use these wrong-sex third-person pronouns for him, whatever your beliefs or thoughts on the matter. [Coercive control, anyone?]

As noted, HB25 1312 amends Colorado’s Anti Discrimination Act. It is extraordinarily far-reaching in its implications. The state is already being sued by the women’s activist sportswear brand XX-XY Athletics, which states its new law would interfere with the company’s ability to market its message.[1] Diverse parent groups have also filed lawsuits, alleging the Bill breaches both parental rights and the right to free speech.

Why are Democrats determined, under Governor Jared Polis, to impose this fashionable faith disguised as “anti-discrimination”? What of those Coloradans whose beliefs run counter to gender identity dogma, or who oppose it on scientific or simply rational grounds? It is said that Polis has torpedoed any presidential aspirations he might have been harboring by signing this bill into law. I certainly hope so.

The bill’s sponsors and defenders are so steeped in gender identity dogma that they cannot see outside of it. They do not realize they are promoting a particular belief. Just as some followers of traditional religions are unable to comprehend there is a viable alternative. It’s a goodies-versus-baddies position of the most primitive kind.

Even so, it is hard to believe that lawmakers who were not under the influence of some illegal substance can have passed such an outrageously unconstitutional piece of legislation. So, to understand the mentality underlying these creepy dictates, let’s take a peek at Colorado Newsline, whose editor Quentin Young assures us it’s much ado about nothing, in an article entitled “The truth about Colorado’s new transgender rights law.” Do tell us, Quentin!