Coloradans Debate Trans Youth Rights as Legislature Considers Bill

Transgender rights have become among the most polarizing topics in American politics today. On Thursday, May 1, over 100 people gathered in an Aurora rec center to debate the issue head-on with community members.

The conservative group Moms for Liberty hosted the town hall to discuss House Bill 25-1312, a proposal that seeks to establish new anti-discrimination protections for transgender Coloradans. The bill passed the House in April and is slated for a full Senate vote on Monday, May 5.

Speakers at the May 1 event spent little time discussing the details of the policy, though, and instead focused on the broader concept of balancing the autonomy of trans youth with the rights of parents.

Cynthia Stein of Durango spoke of her child, a trans boy, though Stein repeatedly referred to him as her daughter and used female pronouns. A few months before his eighteenth birthday, the teen was taken in by his former teacher, who is married to a trans woman. Stein's child told law enforcement that Stein had kicked him out of the house after a fight, and deputies declined to make the now-eighteen-year-old return.

"[The teacher] brainwashed my child, she turned my child against me," Stein says. "My daughter was a very girly girl. She liked frilly dresses, she loved dressing up, and it wasn't until she met this math teacher that all of that changed. ...Now she's eighteen and there's nothing I can do to protect her."

Despite the emotional subject matter, the meeting was mostly subdued. For ninety minutes, panels of conservative speakers took turns sharing their perspectives as handfuls of LGBTQ community members and allies waited to respond, some quietly holding signs expressing support for trans rights.

Proponents finally got their chance to talk during a thirty-minute Q&A session at the end, though the questions were cut off with half of the would-be speakers still waiting for their turn.

"I wanted to ask them when is it neglectful parenting to not allow your kid to be who they want to be? To force your thoughts and opinions on them versus being accepting?" recalls Devin Colon of Aurora, who is nonbinary. Colon says they grew up "very, very religious" and attended a Christian academy school.

"I wasn't able to explore myself at any point," Colon says. "When I was able to get out of that situation, I was able to find myself. I am a mom as well, I've worked in the school system. ...Just let kids be kids. Let them explore themselves and be accepted, not scared in fear that their family or community will shun them and dismantle their thinking and tell them that they're wrong."

Many of Thursday's speakers alluded to a since-removed portion of HB 25-1312, which originally sought to require family-court judges to consider a parent’s misgendering or deadnaming of their trans child in custody proceedings. That requirement was taken out during an overnight Senate committee hearing that began on April 30.

Jason Zook of Adams County says he lost custody of his children in a legal battle that left him bankrupt, and he no longer has any contact with them. He claims their mother is nonbinary and the kids, ages nine and seven, now identify as transgender and nonbinary, respectively.
"This is already what I experienced in the courtrooms of Adams County. The transgender card is powerful," Zook says. "When my children were supposed to be watching Sesame Street, they're watching Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. My seven-year-old is being dressed in women's clothes. And come time for divorce, my nine-year-old boy is suddenly transgender. My seven-year-old is suddenly nonbinary."

Jessica Powell, a lesbian woman who attended the gathering, says she was homeschooled through high school at a Christian ministry, lacking any exposure to the LGBTQ community. While growing up, she had no language to describe herself or her sexuality.

"What they're advocating for is what I experienced. ...Yet all this time later, it still comes out. You are who you are," Powell says. "What are you going to do after all this hate? You put so much effort into this. But the kids who are able to get out are going on to live as their true selves. How do they explain that?"

Though more changes are likely on the way, HB 25-1312, as currently amended, would expand the state’s anti-discrimination law to include intentionally, repeatedly deadnaming or misgendering a transgender person in places like work and school. It would also establish shield-law protections for Coloradans against anti-transgender laws in other states.

"This bill has no teeth," Powell says. "It's the softest, gentlest whisper of a request to show basic human decency. If people are offended by that, I think they need to ask themselves why."

While the controversial child custody portions of the bill are gone, opponents say the fact that they were introduced at all shows that parental rights and the nuclear family are at risk.

“We're here because family, the very building block of Western civilization, is under attack. We’re on the frontline," says Deborah Flora, a parental rights advocate. "We have to stay vigilant so those parts of the bill don't get reintroduced. ...We will build a coalition to make sure this day never comes again."

HB 25-1312 is scheduled for its next vote on the Senate floor on Monday, May 5. The legislative session ends on May 7.