Overview:
Colorado LGBTQ+ groups brace for votes on Propositions 134 and 135, which would change policies affecting transgender youth.
Colorado voters will decide two statewide ballot measures this November that could change policies affecting transgender youth in schools and health care.
Proposition 134 would change eligibility rules for school athletic teams, while Proposition 135 would restrict certain surgeries for minors related to gender identity.
“(These are) ballot measures that would make Colorado unsafe for trans people,” said Chris Talbot, executive director of Trans Continental Pipeline.
Found in 2021, the Trans Continental Pipeline helps transgender people relocate from places they consider unsafe to states with stronger legal protections and support networks. Talbot recently became the organization’s executive director, succeeding founder Keira Richards.
The measures arrive after years in which Colorado lawmakers have generally expanded protections for transgender and nonbinary residents. Organizations such as Trans Continental Pipeline and Inside Out Youth Services say the November votes could change how safe the state feels to transgender youth and families.
Proposition 134 would require school-based athletic teams from elementary school through college to be designated male, female or coeducational. Students would generally be required to participate on teams matching their biological sex, with an exception allowing females to compete on male teams when no equivalent female team exists.
Keeley Griego-Gonzales, communications director for Inside Out Youth Services in Colorado Springs, said the effects could extend beyond transgender students.
“With Proposition 134, if it passes, it won’t just affect young people who are transgender or gender non-conforming,” Griego-Gonzales said. “This actually subjects all girls.”
Inside Out Youth Services has served LGBTQ+ young people in the Pikes Peak region for more than three decades. Its Colorado Springs community center offers programming and support for LGBTQIA2+ youth. Griego-Gonzales said one of her concerns is how disputes over eligibility would be handled under the measure.
“The way that this proposition is written, it would mean that there’s no appeals process,” she said. “So it would be impossible for parents to challenge these questionable actions.”
She described Proposition 134 as vaguely worded and said she worries it could have harmful consequences for young people.
“This piece of legislation is just really poorly written and could have extremely harmful and damaging consequences,” Griego-Gonzales said.
Proposition 135 would prohibit certain surgeries on minors when those procedures are intended to alter sex characteristics in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender, with limited exceptions. The measure would not prohibit all forms of gender-affirming health care.
Griego-Gonzales said the debate around the proposal reaches beyond transgender and gender-expansive youth.
“So we’re really hoping that folks understand that this isn’t just an attack on transgender and gender-expansive young people,” she said.
Trans Continental Pipeline is also watching the measures closely because of Colorado’s role as a destination for some transgender people leaving states with more restrictive laws.
“We’re focused on nine different states based on how hostile they are to trans people,” Talbot said.
The organization works with volunteers, donors and partner groups to help people find housing, services and community connections after relocating. Talbot said expanding that capacity is one of their main priorities.
“Kind of the more pressing things, I would say, right now, is to increase our capacity,” Talbot said. “So, we have those relocation managers.”
Talbot said the organization’s origins were informal before growing into a nonprofit.
“It started as a rant at a punk show and turned into a mutual aid movement,” they said. “Then, when it was clear that the need was greater, it was made into a nonprofit organization.”
Trans Continental Pipeline does not collect detailed demographic information from the people it serves, but Talbot said Denver and other Colorado communities have become important landing places because of existing legal protections and support networks. Talbot worries the ballot measures could affect that perception of Colorado.
“By getting the word out and ensuring that we can keep Colorado a safe place to land for people, because it is one of the safe states, and not have this anti-trans legislation go through,” Talbot said.
Inside Out Youth Services said its work will continue regardless of the election outcome.
“We are dedicated to being here and supporting the young people that we serve and all of their identities that they hold,” Griego-Gonzales said. “That’s really our focus, whether these propositions pass or not.”
Talbot described the same persistence as central to Trans Continental Pipeline’s work.
“It’s a testament,” Talbot said. “We’re resilient, we’re resourceful and we’re generous.”
