Colorado voters approve measure to ban trans children from playing school sports

Colorado voters approved a ballot measure that will ban transgender children from playing school sports. 

The Associated Press called the race at 4:12 p.m. Thursday, when 52% of votes were in support of Proposition 134. The AP estimated 92% of votes were counted at that time. 

Proposition 134 will add language in state statute to define boys and girls based on physical anatomy, excluding transgender people. The measure will restrict which teams students play on based on their “biological reproductive system.” 

Protect Kids Colorado, an organization led by prominent anti-LGBTQ+ activist Erin Lee, led the measure. 

“People from every corner of our state gave what they could — time, treasure, courage and conviction — because our children are worth protecting,” Lee said in a statement Wednesday. “And today, we are sending a clear signal to Colorado’s leadership: when elected officials fail or refuse to protect kids, We the People will come together and do it ourselves. Our voices cannot be ignored.”

Measure on surgeries ahead

Proposition 135, another ballot measure Protect Kids Colorado led, would prohibit health care professionals from knowingly performing any surgery on a minor “for the purpose of altering biological sex characteristics. It was ahead with just under 52% of votes as of 5:10 p.m. Thursday, but the AP had yet to call that race. 

Families Not Politics, an issue committee that opposed both ballot measures, acknowledged the success of both measures Thursday. The committee is led by LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations including One Colorado, Rocky Mountain Equality, the Transgender Law Center and Inside Out Youth Services, as well as Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and Cobalt, an abortion-rights organization. 

“Colorado’s kids will have to live with the consequences of this election — they will face new barriers to medically necessary healthcare and new, expensive barriers and exclusion from full participation in school,” the Families Not Politics campaign said in a statement. “Their families will now have to navigate laws created by a political campaign that turned their children into a statewide controversy.”

Sports teams sponsored by schools or athletic associations will be required to expressly designate teams for men, women or co-ed participation. Schools and their athletic departments will need to adopt policies implementing the requirements of the initiative by Jan. 1.

Opponents say the definitions of sex and gender in Proposition 134 mean a school cannot rely on its own records or a student’s birth certificate to determine a child’s sex. That could result in more than just trans children being subjected to whatever verification process schools select. 

Families Not Politics said it will “exhaust every option” to defend the rights of trans kids and “keep working toward a Colorado where transgender students are allowed to be kids, not political symbols.”

“Opponents of trans equality used fear and confusion to make scapegoats of trans young people and distract from problems families face every day, including skyrocketing costs of living and lack of access to affordable healthcare,” Jax Gonzalez, political director at One Colorado, said in a statement. “These campaigns are meant to exhaust the people forced to defend their families and their futures.”

Gov.-elect Phil Weiser, a Democrat, on Thursday signaled a willingness to back legislative changes to Propositions 134 and 135.

Bruce Parker, executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy group Rocky Mountain Equality, said the passage of both measures intentionally leave basic question about how they will be enforced unanswered.

“To every transgender kid and family, we’ve got your back,” Parker said in a statement. “This is your home too. This vote doesn’t change that.”

Another ballot initiative from Protect Kids Colorado, Proposition 133, passed with 62% of the vote. It mandates that anyone convicted of child sex trafficking be sentenced to life in prison without parole.