The radical bill requires a judge overseeing a child custody case to weigh a parent’s affirmation of their child’s made-up gender identity before ruling on custody rights.
The measure is called "An Act Concerning Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals."
The legislation states, quite directly, that “deadnaming” the child or “misgendering” the child ends the parent’s chances of winning custody.
“Deadnaming” would mean a parent uses a child’s original name, such as Brian, when the child now identifies as “Brittany.”
“Misgendering” is referring to “Brittany” as a “he.”
Jeff Johnston, a policy analyst at Colorado-based Focus on the Family, told American Family Radio the bill forces the court to side with the transgender-affirming parent in any custody case.
“It defines misgendering your child as child abuse, as ‘coercive control,’ they call it,” Johnston, citing the bill’s language, told the “Today’s Issues” program.
If his description of the bill sounds a far-fetched to believe, the bill’s critics may have gotten some help from a Colorado lawmaker, Rep. Yara Zokaie. During a committee hearing this week, the first-term Democrat likened parents objecting to the bill to the Ku Klux Klan objecting to the Civil Rights movement.
“We don't ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion,” Zokaie, an attorney, told Republicans on the committee, according to a Fox News story.
After making that comparison, Fox News says the Democrat downplayed the possibility a parent could lose custody of their child. The bill only sets “parameters” for a judge to consider, the state lawmaker told the House Judiciary Committee.
“There are no mandates in this bill,” she insisted.
Just how radical is the Colorado bill? A similar bill was approved in neighboring California, in 2023, but it was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Johnston, who has witnessed Colorado change from a red to a deep-blue state, said the bill is one of the worst he’s seen since Democrats gained a super-majority in the legislature.
“And Colorado has passed some pretty bad stuff in the last five or ten years,” he said.
