Nearly 100 school officials in districts and charter schools across Colorado are urging lawmakers to vote against a bill that would strengthen protections for transgender people in the state, KKTV reports.
Earlier this month, the Colorado House passed the Kelly Loving Act, which would add misgendering and deadnaming as forms of discrimination under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. The legislation would prohibit both in public places, including schools.
Related:
The Kelly Loving Act is named for one of five victims killed in the 2022 Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs.
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A signed letter written by District 11’s Board Secretary Jason Jorgenson, claims the legislation could undermine “parental rights” and local school leaders’ control while creating compliance challenges.
The bill would “place schools in the challenging position of navigating sensitive custody disputes, diverting resources from our core educational mission,” the signatories say.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House on April 6. Now it heads to the Senate.
“I don’t see it as protecting because I think what it’s doing is you’re affirming a mental health crisis of a child,” said Republican state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell, who voted against the legislation.
Caldwell told KOAA News state law should not tell parents how to treat a child that wants to go by a different name or different pronouns, or punish parents for disagreeing with a certain “ideology”.
“The parent who maybe wants to try to get them a different kind of help, maybe through a counselor, or through church or something else, that parent is considered doing ‘coercive control’, which in the law is defined as child abuse. So, they’re saying you are abusing your child by not affirming the child’s gender confusion,” Caldwell claimed.
The bill says courts shall consider a parent deadnaming or misgendering their child as “coercive control” during child custody hearings, and should take that behavior under consideration when determining visitation rights.
Bill sponsor Rebekah Stewart disagreed with characterizations of the bill as an incursion on “parental rights”.
The Kelly Loving Act was written to “just ensure that we are saying ‘we see you, you are important, you are safe and protected and wanted here in Colorado and we are going to do everything that we can to make sure that you can live your life.’”
Kelly Loving’s sister Tiffany said her sibling was often bullied at school and didn’t always have a great experience in the workplace. The bill would be a step toward more acceptance for people like her.
“All they want to do is be normal, like everybody else,” said Tiffany.
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