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Radical Transgender Bill In Colorado: It’s ‘Coercive Control’ To Not Affirm Child’s Gender Identity
Parents in custody battles who misgender or “deadname” their child would be accused of “coercive control” under a new radical Colorado bill.
The bill was introduced late Friday evening and on Tuesday it passed the Colorado Assembly’s Judiciary Committee in a 7-4 vote. It now heads to the Assembly floor for a second reading.
The “Kelly Loving Act,” named for a trans-identifying man who was killed in the 2022 Colorado nightclub shooting, targets parents who do not affirm their child’s new gender identity.
In child custody decisions, “a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control,” the bill reads.
“Coercive control” also includes things like threatening to kill someone or forcing someone to commit crimes under Colorado law.
The bill also bars Colorado courts from cooperating with other states’ laws that remove a child from their parent because the parent allowed the child to receive transgender medical services like puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgery.
The bill also says that school policies allowing children to use a different name must be “inclusive of all reasons that a student might adopt a chosen name.” Also, school dress codes must not “enforce any rules based on gender,” according to the bill.
“Deadnaming” and “misgendering” would officially be “discriminatory acts” under Colorado law if the bill passes.
State Rep. Jarvis Caldwell, a Republican, called attention to the bill on social media, saying lawmakers who oppose it were given “no time to analyze it” or coordinate testimony.
This bill just got introduced late Friday evening & we just found out today it’s scheduled for Judiciary Committee TOMORROW. And it’s RADICAL.
No time to analyze it. No time to coordinate testimony. No time to talk with stakeholders or constituents. #coleg #copolitics pic.twitter.com/YvWkJVghhq
— Rep. Jarvis Caldwell (@RepCaldwell) April 1, 2025
Caldwell said the bill is likely to become law soon.
Lori Gimelshteyn, executive director of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network called the bill an “unconstitutional overreach that turns parenting—a sacred duty to guide and protect your child—into a punishable offense if it doesn’t align with the state’s agenda.”
“This bill redefines love, conviction, and parenting as ‘coercive control’ — and that’s both dangerous and deeply wrong,” Gimelshteyn told The Daily Wire. “What kind of society are we becoming when a parent can lose custody of their child, not for abuse, neglect or endangerment, but for using the name they gave their child at birth?”
Gimelshteyn spoke in formal opposition to the bill during Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing. Also speaking were two other women, Mia Hughes, senior researcher at Genspect, and Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, who spoke in her personal capacity.
“There are consequences to lying to a child,” Hughes told lawmakers. “A parent telling their sweet, effeminate boy who likes Barbies and princess gowns that he can be a girl may solve his distress in the short term … but this is short-sighted.”
Hughes explained that the data shows most children will desist and identity as their birth sex again, but this “natural process” is interrupted if a parent affirms the child’s cross-sex identity.
“It’s easy to turn a little boy into a convincing girl just by putting him in a dress and giving him a girl’s name, but the illusion becomes unsustainable when testosterone begins to surge, so now he must medicalize,” she said, citing the often permanent harms of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and genital surgery.
"What kind of society are we becoming when a parent can lose custody of their child, not for abuse, neglect or endangerment, but for using the name they gave their child at birth. That is what this bill enables…"
Great testimony today from @LoriGim of @CPANColorado in… pic.twitter.com/rFmrnuoXFT
— FreeStateColorado (@FreeStateColor1) April 2, 2025
"It’s easy to turn a little boy into a convincing girl just by putting him in a dress and giving him a girl’s name. But the illusion becomes unsustainable when testosterone begins to surge."
My testimony earlier today in opposition to Colorado's completely insane HB25-1312. pic.twitter.com/6uk3W1iG6n
— Mia Hughes (@_CryMiaRiver) April 2, 2025
My testimony against CO HB 25-1312. This committee is STILL going on. Despite more expert witnesses opposing than people supporting — this bill being unconstitutional — and costing tax payers $MILLIONS: I suspect it will pass. So we must keep fighting.
Thank you to all who… pic.twitter.com/8W1pWxqAab
— Erin for Parental Rights (@Erin4Parents) April 2, 2025
Lee said her sixth grade daughter was “secretly transitioned” at her school, convinced that her “normal pubescent discomfort” meant she was actually a transgender boy, and affirming her only caused her more mental distress.
“If this law was in place four years ago when CPS came to my door for non-affirmation I would have lost my child,” she said.
“Parents have long been bullied by the suicide myth: that you must transition your child or else they will kill themself. Now the state is adding to that: transition your child or else we will take them from you,” Lee told The Daily Wire. “This will harm so many fathers who are fighting their ex-spouses medicalizing their children against their will in Colorado. It fortifies our status as a wrong-sex mutilation sanctuary state, encouraging more people to move here and transition their children.”
She said Democrats appear to be trying to quickly pass the bill before critics can mount a response.
“Democrats are seemingly trying to pass this in the night, so quickly that we don’t have time to read the bill or organize testimony against it,” she added. “But with 24 hours notice, more expert witnesses showed up to oppose than people who showed up to support this bill yesterday.”
Colorado parents who oppose their children’s transgender identities have found themselves in nightmare situations.
Earlier this year, one Durango mother found the police would not help her retrieve her 17-year-old daughter from the house of her daughter’s former math teacher and trans-identifying husband, who had taken the girl into her home.