In Colorado, a state gubernatorial candidate with a history of opposing progressive transgender ideology is leading the effort of women staffers in the Capitol building who have had to share their bathrooms with men for some time.
Representative Scott Bottoms (R) got involved after the women filed a formal complaint and were essentially told to sit down and shut up.
"There have been men using the women's bathrooms for a long time. One's a sitting representative; there are some aides that are all men. They claim to be women," he relays.
The staffers are choosing to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
Their formal three-page complaint reads in part, "[This transgender aide] has created an environment that feels increasingly hostile and unsafe… this situation has escalated beyond a manageable level for us."
The transgender aide involved in the complaint reportedly followed the other aides around, "stalking" and "threatening" them through body language.
Bottoms says the pushback is coming from Julie McCluskie, the highest-ranking Democrat in the state House.
"The speaker of the House and the Democrat side of the House have basically shut them down, threatened their jobs, all kinds of things," the representative reports.
He says McCluskie has made it her life mission to force her delusions about gender on the rest of the House.
"This is the number one issue for the speaker of the House," Bottoms accounts. "She's very pro-trans ideology, and she will destroy people and women and everybody that gets in the way of her ideology."
The "Kelly Loving Act," named after a man who was killed in the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, is one example of a pro-trans bill with Speaker McCluskie's support. As AFN has reported, that measure (House Bill 1312) classifies parents as abusive if they do not affirm their child's so-called "gender identity."
Lawmakers approved it earlier this month.
"This bill is going to take children away from parents if they do not adhere to a transgender ideology," Bottoms explains.
With that in mind, he does not think the Democrat-controlled statehouse will do anything to protect the privacy of these female staffers.
Republicans want to protect women
In Texas, concerned parents and citizens are hoping to ensure that the rights of men who think they are women do not transcend the rights of everyone else.
Megan Benton, strategic policy associate for Texas Values, says her group hosted a "Women's Privacy Day of Action" on Wednesday outside of the Texas House of Representatives.
As a Senate committee considers the Women's Bill of Rights, her organization wanted to draw certain House members' attention toward the issue and ask for a hearing in the House State Affairs Committee for the Texas Women's Privacy Act (SB 240).
Senator Mayes Milton (R) and Representative Valoree Swanson, the authors of the House and Senate versions of the measure, joined them for a morning press conference.
"After that, we asked that our supporters of the bill go to the different offices of the State Affairs members and ask them for a hearing in the House," Benton details.
She calls the Texas Women's Privacy Act "a critical piece of legislation" that protects women's private spaces like locker rooms, shelters, bathrooms, and prisons by ensuring that only women use them.
Brooke Slusser and Payton McNabb – two female athletes and advocates for fairness and safety – both shared their stories at Wednesday's event.
Benton describes the "Day of Action" as a "fantastic day" full of advocacy and conversation, and she says Texas Values is "really excited with the results."
The Texas Senate passed the Women's Privacy Act to engrossment last month, and Benton's team hopes the state House will approve it and send it to Governor Greg Abbott's (R) desk for his signature.
"We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks, but we are optimistic, and we're just continuing to push forward," she tells AFN.
