By Democrats in Colorado have reminded the country why the party should not be in charge of the national government. Lawmakers in the Centennial State have given initial approval to a bill that would legally define misgendering—using a person’s former name or pronouns—as a form of harassment and discrimination under state law.
The proposed legislation carries significant implications, particularly for schools and family courts. If enacted, it would bar gender-specific dress codes in educational settings and require schools to use a transgender student’s affirmed name, so long as they permit other students to go by nicknames. Family courts would also be instructed to consider parental misgendering as a factor in custody decisions, treating it as a form of “coercive control,” writes The Federalist.
Far-left members of the Colorado state House advanced a bill on Tuesday evening that would direct courts considering child custody cases to favor parents who push radical gender ideology and penalize parents who do not “affirm” their child’s identification as “transgender.”
“House Bill 1312 is an egregious step towards solidifying Colorado as a Trans Sanctuary State. This bill requires a court to give priority consideration for custody to the parent that affirms a child’s gender dysphoria,” Republican state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell told The Federalist. “The parent who disagrees and tries to get the child actual help is now guilty of committing child abuse, referred [to] in the bill as ‘coercive control.’ The bill also ignores other state[s’] court rulings if one parent brings a child to Colorado for gender-affirming care; directly violating Article IV, Section 1, known as the Full Faith and Credit Clause, of the U.S. Constitution.”
Democrats hold significant majorities in both chambers, and Democrat Gov. Jared Polis has already signed radical transgender bills in the past.
In Colorado, “coercive control” also includes things like threatening to murder someone, “threatening to commit suicide … as a method of coercion,” and other extreme behavior, but the new bill would punish parents for simply looking out for the best social, psychological, and medical interests of their child by not allowing him to start down a path of dangerous, experimental, and irreversible medical decisions.
The bill would also block Colorado courts from working with other states that remove a child from a parent’s custody for allowing the child to get trans medical interventions, and it requires school policies that allow children to use a different name to be “inclusive of all reasons that a student might adopt a chosen name.” Dress codes are also not allowed to be enforced based on sex.
Named in memory of Kelly Loving, a transgender woman killed in the 2022 Club Q nightclub shooting in Colorado Springs, the bill is sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart. They say the legislation is designed to affirm the dignity and rights of transgender Coloradans.
“Frankly, I wish we didn’t have to bring this bill,” Stewart said during floor debate. “But the reality of navigating our world today as a transgender human necessitates it, and this community deserves all our support right now.”
The bill has provoked intense opposition from Republican lawmakers, who claim it infringes on free speech and parental rights. State Rep. Jarvis Caldwell denounced the measure in stark terms, warning it could criminalize parental efforts to question or reject a child’s gender identity.
“The idea that misgendering your own child is considered coercive control — which is another word for abuse? Child abuse? Because you want to get your child help instead of affirming their delusions? This is the most disgusting bill I’ve seen so far,” Caldwell said on the House floor.
Other Democrats compared concerns from parents over the bill to the KKK. The Daily Wire noted, “Two Democrats on the committee dismissed the idea that they had left parent groups and other critics out of the discussion, saying lawmakers do not have to discuss the bill with “hate groups” or people using “hateful rhetoric.”
‘We don’t get to have a difference of opinion over somebody’s basic rights,’ said Democratic state Rep. Yara Zokaie. ‘We’ve heard a lot about stakeholding and who was left out of stakeholding, and this process is important for us to understand the implications of the bills that we are passing, but a well stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups.’
‘We don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion,’ Zokaie said.
Chairman Javier Mabrey, also a Democrat, said now is ‘our generational moment.’”
If signed into law by Governor Jared Polis, who many consider to be a candidate for 2028, the misgendering bill would place Colorado among a small number of states explicitly recognizing misgendering as a discriminatory act that strips parents of authority over their children.
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