Annual LGBTQ+ lobby day falls on same day as bill attempting to ban trans youth from sports
DENVER — As anti-transgender bills circulate through state legislatures around the country, advocates in Colorado had one message on Monday: “not in our state.”
One Colorado — one of the state’s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy nonprofits — held its annual lobbying day Monday, Feb. 13, an annual tradition since the nonprofit’s creation more than 10 years ago.
Though the event happens every year, Monday felt different. Just three months after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ club in Colorado Springs, Republicans in the state legislature introduced a bill attempting to ban transgender youth from playing sports. The bill did not pass out of its committee, but advocates said the bleak message it sent is clear.
“By having these anti-trans sports and health bills, you’re telling trans people they’re not worth as much and they’re not meant to be included,” said Syre Klenke, a transgender man and former collegiate soccer player. “I think it sends a negative message to all trans people, but especially trans youth, that they don’t belong.”
Klenke said sports provided him with mental health benefits throughout his life and he hopes all children have the same opportunity, regardless of gender identity.
“Any sort of discrimination, especially based on gender or someone's sexual orientation is just ridiculous,” Klenke said. “Getting rid of all of these anti-LGBTQ bills and setting a standard that we’re not going to give them any attention is huge because I think each one opens the door for more to come.”
While Colorado does not keep a registry of high school athletes who identify as transgender, those who spoke out against the bill said the number is so small that the bill felt more like a message to transgender people than a way to protect girls’ sports.
“There’s a lot of misinformation being led saying there’s a big problem that needs to be solved,” said Democratic Rep. Brianna Titone, who represents Golden. “This is denying kids the ability to play sports because they think that maybe someday, they’re going to dominate the sport or you’re getting someone who’s going on a girls’ sports team just to win all the awards.”
Titone is Colorado’s first openly transgender representative and has advocated for other LGBTQ+ people throughout her time in the legislature.
“It’s a solution looking for a problem,” Titone said. “It’s hurting kids, making them feel less than and denying their existence.”
On Monday, the State, Civic, Military and Veterans Affairs committee also passed a bill requiring each new publicly constructed building to include a gender-neutral restroom, which the bill’s sponsors saw as a win.
“This bill is a really exciting step forward in making Colorado a more accessible place for people of all genders,” said Rep. Steph Vigil, a Colorado Springs Democrat. “It’s crucially important in helping parents have access to baby changing facilities regardless of their gender.”
While Colorado has more protections for LGBTQ+ residents than much of the country — including most of its surrounding states — activists said the fight is far from over.
“Sometimes I think because we have so many protections that there is some complacency,” said One Colorado Executive Director Nadine Bridges. “We know at the local level especially that there are people making it hard for our youth to thrive in schools. We know there’s a lot of censorship, there’s a lot of negative rhetoric.”
Despite its reputation as a progressive state, Bridges said Colorado is not free from homophobia and transphobia, particularly as harmful national narratives around gender-nonconforming people continue to spread.
[Related: Accusations of 'grooming' are the latest political attack — with homophobic origins]
“At every level where they’re attacking trans and nonbinary folks, calling drag queens groomers, those things need to stop and the only way that they can stop is for us to talk to our legislative officials and make sure they understand these things are important to us and their job is to protect us and serve us and we will hold them accountable for that,” Bridges said. “I don’t really know what moves anyone to attack vulnerable community members, but what I do know is it gives them political talking points."
Alison Berg is a multimedia journalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach her at alisonberg@rmpbs.org.
William Peterson is a senior photojournalist at Rocky Mountain PBS. You can reach him at williampeterson@rmpbs.org.