GOP Representative Jarvis Caldwell says Colorado HB25-1312, Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals, demonizes parents who want to protect their children from harmful drugs or surgeries.
He calls it "Orwellian."
"If your child is confused about their gender identity, and you don't affirm that confusion, that delusion, then you are guilty of child abuse, and you can lose custody of your children," he summarizes.
Over the weekend, Democrats used a couple of House rules to immediately cut off debate and call for a vote on the bill, depriving Caldwell and others the opportunity to make their cases against it. They pushed through a slate of controversial gender and abortion bills on Sunday.
"It should alarm every American that Colorado's majority used a Sunday – a day typically reserved for family and prayer – to force through four of the most extreme bills of the session," Republican House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese told Fox News Digital Monday.
While "weekend work" is a "tactic the majority uses to punish the minority," Pugliese said it was especially "unprecedented" this time because of the highly controversial nature of the bills.
"There was no filibuster, no delay – just a determined effort to shut down discussion on legislation that directly affects parental rights, public safety, and the use of taxpayer dollars," she said.
"They know how much negative attention this has been getting nationwide, and so what they did was they silenced us," Caldwell laments. "They did not let us represent our constituents."
Curious about how much stakeholdering went on, he did ask the Democrats if they talked with any parents who opposed the bill when crafting it.
Rep. Yara Zokaie showed the disdain her party has for parents or other advocates for children, comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan.
"A well stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups, and we don't ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion," she told Republicans during a committee hearing last week.
Monica Duran (D), the state House majority leader, says the four bills – SB25-183, which requires taxpayers to fund abortion services; HB25-1309, mandating insurers cover transgender procedures regardless of age; HB25-1312, which imposes state-mandated gender policies on schools and considers it "coercive control" in child custody cases when a parent does not affirm a child's gender identity; and SB25-129, which prohibits cooperation with out-of-state investigations on transgender procedures and abortion services – were debated on the floor for more than 12 hours last week.
The Democrats, however, believe the majority they hold in the state is a mandate from voters to shield them from the Trump administration's policies, which recognize biological reality and protect children from dangerous and irreversible medical interventions.
