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When Colorado’s far right failed—repeatedly—to pass anti-trans legislation, they banded together with the Catholic Church to drag anti-trans initiatives onto the ballot, collecting hundreds of thousands of signatures. They were certified this week, meaning come November, they’ll likely be put to a public vote.
But there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to these proposals, which use the veil of children’s safety to peddle dangerously discriminatory policies.
They were organized by the group Protect Kids Colorado.Initiative 110will determine whether trans minors under age 18 can access medically necessary surgery “altering biological sex characteristics.” It also strips state and federal funding from providers of such procedures.
At the same time, explicit exceptions for irreversible genital surgeries on intersex infants, as well as “male circumcision,” are carved out under these policies.
Then there’s Initiative 109. While this is promoted by conservatives as an anti-trans sports ban, mandating students play on scholastic and collegiate sports teams that align with their assigned birth sex, it actually goes much further in its encroachment onto Coloradans’ rights and privacy. Initiative 109 would also introduce unscientific, arbitrary sex definitions into law—based on what kind of gamete, if any, someone’s reproductive system is judged to be “organized around.”
It’s not the first time conservatives have used ballot measures as a political maneuver to sidestep blue legislatures. In Maine, billionaires are funding anti-trans efforts to install a bathroom ban and a sports ban via a ballot initiative. Meanwhile, Washington will vote on a provision that could require genital inspections for certain cases in women’s athletics. And in Missouri, a November vote on Proposition 3 could strip citizens of both the right to abortion and the right to gender-affirming care all in one fell swoop.
Protect Kids Colorado is a far-right evangelical group that is no stranger to antagonizing the LGBTQ community. Co-founder and former Republican legislator Kevin Lundberg has used his platform to call for the eradication of “the transgender plague” upon Colorado. He told Christian nationalist Lance Wallnau that the ballot measures will “change elections overall in this state.”
“This is the point of the spear,” Lundberg said.
Meanwhile, co-founder Erin Lee said she was motivated to act after attempting to stop her child from exploring their gender identity and warding off what Lee called the “gender cult.”
Kyle Clark on Instagram: "Evangelical Christians have successfu…
Similar ballot initiatives also took place in past years but failed. This time, the Colorado Catholic Conference—representing the state’s archdiocese and dioceses—used holiday masses to supercharge petitions via “designated parish signature collection weekends.”
Mardi Moore, CEO of the statewide LGBTQ rights group Rocky Mountain Equality, says activists are rapidly mobilizing volunteer response networks to get out the vote and, if need be, legal funds to take on a potential trans sports ban or trans youth surgery ban.
She says they’ve been battling proposals like this for years—but that Coloradans have resisted. “One of the things about Colorado,” Moore told Erin in the Morning, “is that freedom and privacy matter in this state.”
However, she added, “We have a big fight in front of us.”
Even if the initiatives pass, there are still ways to fight back, State Rep. Brianna Titone told Erin in the Morning. The legislature can vote to overturn them or whittle them down with a large enough majority.
“I suspect we will be able to defend against it, but we have to educate people about it,” Titone said.
“We have to understand the people who are behind this initiative. It’s not about protection—it’s all about religious-based nonsense that’s fueling the fervor against trans people.”
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