Prominent Colorado LGBTQ+ groups hedge on support for transgender rights bill, putting it in limbo

In early April, the political director of a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group urged state lawmakers to support legislation that would extend new legal protections to transgender Coloradans.

House Bill 1312, One Colorado’s Jax Gonzalez testified, was a show of solidarity for transgender people amid a “coordinated and escalating set of attacks” nationwide. The bill, they said, represented “one piece of an ongoing conversation about how we respond.”

“Not just with policy,” Gonzalez said, “but with principle.”

A little more than two weeks later, that support took a turn. Gonzalez told the bill’s supporters last week that One Colorado was hedging its support and would seek changes to the proposal, an advocate said. The group told The Denver Post that it had legal concerns and that it wanted to ensure the bill didn’t jeopardize “existing protections.”

Prominent LGBTQ+ groups, including the Gill Foundation, have also privately raised concerns after the bill passed the House earlier this month. Some wondered whether current law was sufficient, and they worried about a legal backlash if the bill passed, its supporters said.

While the measure cleared the House on April 6 with full Democratic backing, it has since languished in the Senate, where it has not yet been introduced or assigned to a committee. The upheaval has thrown a late and unexpected roadblock in front of a proposal that seeks to prevent “deadnaming” of transgender people and ensure family courts consider parents’ support of — or opposition to — their child’s gender identity in custody proceedings.

In a scathing email obtained by The Post, an advocate supporting the bill told Gonzalez that One Colorado’s shift was “an act of betrayal.”

The bill’s supporters and its Democratic backers had worked with the group on previous changes, and they argued that One Colorado was well aware of the bill’s contents when it signed on in support. The group’s representatives even attended events supporting the proposal.

Now, lawmakers say, they don’t know what changes One Colorado wants or why it’s abruptly changed its position on a bill that’s undergone only minor changes since Gonzalez’s public show of support.

“Nothing in the bill has changed,” Sen. Faith Winter, a Westminster Democrat, said Tuesday. “We have taken feedback from those organizations since the beginning.”

In an email Tuesday, One Colorado’s executive director, Nadine Bridges, said the group “moved to an amend position after hearing concerns from community members, families, partners, and legal experts. To address those concerns and ensure the bill protects our community, we are working on amendments.”

In separate emails, One Colorado spokesperson Cal Solverson said the group was “working with local families, transgender community leaders, and legal experts to ensure the language of this bill reflects current best practices” and that “expert LGBTQIA+ lawyers inside and outside Colorado have identified areas where clarification and improvement are needed to ensure we don’t jeopardize existing protections.”

“One Colorado continues to support the intent of this bill,” Solverson wrote, adding that the group’s suggested amendments should be drafted by the end of the week.

Senate President James Coleman, a Denver Democrat, said Tuesday morning that the bill’s sponsors were still working with stakeholders. Winter and Democratic Rep. Lorena Garcia, another bill sponsor, said they believed the measure had sufficient support from lawmakers and were confident it would eventually pass.

The bill has been staunchly opposed by Republicans. The measure would require family courts to consider a parent’s intentional misgendering or deadnaming of a transgender child in custody proceedings. The latter means to refer to a person by the name they used before they transitioned.

House Republicans have argued those provisions would infringe on parental rights, and some lawmakers attended a protest against the bill outside the Capitol last week.

The measure would also prohibit Colorado courts from using other states’ anti-transgender laws to facilitate transferring custody of a child from one parent to another because the child had received gender-affirming care. It would amend the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to specify that intentionally misgendering transgender people or using their deadname would be discriminatory if done in a place of public accommodation.

After the bill passed the House, the Gill Foundation, a prominent financial supporter of LGBTQ+ causes including One Colorado, called lawmakers to express “concerns,” Winter said. Other national organizations also shared “late feedback” on the measure.

Then, near the end of a meeting last week with advocates, lawmakers and legislative leadership, One Colorado said it was going to formally drop its support position and instead seek amendments, according to Z Williams, an advocate and supporter of the bill. Rocky Mountain Equality soon followed.

Winter said One Colorado expressed “mostly fear of lawsuits” and “legal backlash.” After the meeting ended, the group publicly announced on Instagram that it would seek “thoughtful revisions” to “ensure the success of this bill.”

Rocky Mountain Equality’s chief operating office, Bruce Parker, declined to comment Tuesday. The Gill Foundation, founded by prominent Democratic donor Tim Gill, did not return a message seeking comment.

The nature of the groups’ desired changes was unclear. Bridges would not describe them to The Post, and the bill’s supporters said they haven’t received a written list of specific concerns or proposed amendments.

In the email exchange with Gonzalez obtained by The Post, Erika Unger — the director of legal services for a nonprofit law firm supporting the bill — listed the previous feedback suggested by One Colorado that had been accepted by supporters. Unger also accused One Colorado of sabotaging the bill and said the group’s shifting support — at the tail end of the legislative session, which concludes in two weeks — had jeopardized the proposal.

Williams, who works at the same nonprofit law firm, Bread and Roses Legal Center, said some LGBTQ+ groups had told supporters that the bill’s protections weren’t needed and that current law was sufficient to protect transgender people.

The bill’s sponsors disagreed, and the bill proceeded — past staunch Republican opposition and with One Colorado behind it. But the organization’s sudden shift — and the unclear nature of their desired changes — has surprised and frustrated supporters.

“It’s hard to change things when you don’t know what you’re being asked to change,” Williams said. “And also, we are doing our best to listen to feedback and be nimble and receptive.”

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