An anti-LGBTQ+ organization submitted signatures to the Colorado secretary of state’s office Friday for two ballot measures that would restrict rights for transgender children in the state.
Protect Kids Colorado, a coalition led by prominent anti-LGBTQ+ activist Erin Lee, submitted signatures for ballot measures that would prevent transgender children from participating in school sports and receiving gender-affirming surgeries. Lee led several anti-LGBTQ+ initiatives that the Colorado Title Board rejected ahead of the 2024 election.
Friday was the deadline for the group to submit to the secretary of state’s office at least 124,238 valid signatures from registered voters for each initiative. If the office verifies the group met that threshold, the measures will be placed on the November 2026 ballot.
There isn’t clear data on the number of transgender student athletes in Colorado, and the two major hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors in the state do not offer surgeries to minors.
“These initiatives use the language of protection to advance a political agenda that threatens the dignity, safety, freedom and belonging of our neighbors,” Nadine Bridges, executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization One Colorado, said in a statement.
In an Instagram video, Protect Kids Colorado said the organization submitted 165,000 signatures on Ballot Initiative 110, which would prohibit health care professionals from knowingly performing any surgery on a minor “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics.”
The measure would also prohibit state and federal funding including Medicaid from being used to pay for gender-affirming procedures.
Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health have paused gender-affirming care for youths amid the Trump administration’s threats to pull Medicaid and Medicare funding entirely.
The group submitted more than 170,000 signatures in support of Ballot Initiative 109, which would add language in state statute to define boys and girls based on physical anatomy, excluding transgender people.
Sports teams sponsored by schools or athletic associations would be required to expressly designate those teams for men, women or coed. Schools and their athletic departments would be required to adopt policies implementing the requirements of the initiative.
The measure would not affect any student’s ability to participate in coed sports.
The state’s commissioner of education would be tasked with enforcing the measure, and would have discretion to determine how to “take appropriate remedial action” against any school not in compliance with its requirements.
Protect Kids Colorado earlier this week submitted over 170,000 signatures for a third measure, Ballot Initiative 108, to increase penalties for people convicted of human trafficking of a minor.
“This incredible effort gathering over a half-million signatures, nearly all from volunteers, is truly a historic event and clearly shows how much Coloradans reject policies that put ideology ahead of children’s well-being,” Lee said in a statement.
The group Families Not Politics formed to formally oppose all three ballot measures. In a statement after the signature submissions, Families Not Politics said Initiative 108 is “a Trojan horse using the language of child protection to advance a broader political agenda rather than reflect the best practices for supporting survivors.”
“We can all agree that child safety matters,” Bridges said. “We should be clear when that language causes harm and is used in ways that fall short of protecting young people or supporting survivors.”
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