Colorado's 'totalitarian' transgenderism bill sparks concerns from parents
Parental rights advocates are cautioning against a "totalitarian" transgenderism bill rammed through the Colorado state House that they say could jeopardize parents' chances in custody battles if they "misgender" or "deadname" their children.
"This is giving the authority to our state to take our children away if we don't agree with these gender transitions, so it's got huge ramifications for all parents, especially those in custody situations who are fighting with their ex-spouses to stop their children from being medicalized," Erin Lee, a mom from the Centennial State, told "The Faulkner Focus" on Monday.
She added, "It opens the door for all parents to potentially have their children forcibly removed by the state if they're not willing to affirm their child's mental health distress."
HB25-1312, which imposes state-mandated gender policies on schools and considers it "coercive control" in child custody cases when a parent does not affirm a child's gender identity, was among a slate of Democratic-led bills pushed through earlier this month.
More specifically, the bill states 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."
The Colorado bill, which would create the Kelly Loving Act, named after a transgender man who was killed in the 2022 Colorado nightclub shooting by a nonbinary gunman, also prohibits Colorado courts from enforcing laws from other states that remove children from parents who allow transgender treatments for minors.
For moms like Lee and California parental rights activist Erin Friday, the issue is personal. Both Lee's and Friday's daughters once identified as boys, but neither mom affirmed that belief and their daughters eventually stopped identifying as transgender.
"This bill will not only determine that parents like Erin and I are abusers — both of us had Child Protective Services come to our home when we refused to call our daughter males — but this bill also affects the press and its freedom of the press, and it will require them to use the chosen name of a child, how they choose it, and any adult," Friday warned, adding that, if implemented, the measure poses a "massive First Amendment violation."
Friday, a lifelong Democrat, insisted the issue should be "bipartisan," adding that parents need to fight back in the courts, in the public domain and through "standing up" at legislative hearings.
Both moms fundamentally oppose the idea that children can be born in the wrong body. The bill now heads to the state Senate.
At a contentious hearing last month on the bill, a Colorado Democrat likened concerned parents to hate groups like "the KKK."
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Fox News' Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.