2 weeks Ago By The Gazette editorial board
The radicalized left-wing legislative majority has Coloradans in shock and awe over House Bill 1312, a measure that sailed through the House Judiciary Committee last week with a 7-4 party line vote. Dubbed a “protection” for gender identity, this late-night concoction turns hyper-sensitivity into a crime and meddles in matters best left to common courtesy, families, and local school boards. Colorado lawmakers and courts have better things to do than police pronouns and dress codes.
Our state’s cratored roads need their attention. Our soaring crime and housing shortage cry for solutions. A cure for “deadnaming” isn’t an emergency justifying late-bill status.
HB 1312 mandates that courts weigh “deadnaming” and “misgendering” as coercive control in custody battles. It means a parent or grandparent slipping on a child’s new name, or getting accused of such, risks losing visitation. It forces schools to honor “chosen names” for any reason and bans dress codes “based on gender.
” The dress code mandate makes no exception for sectarian and other private schools, referencing “local education providers." This means religious elementary schools could get snagged for requiring that boys wear trousers and girls wear skirts. The bill expressly applies the proposed law to “places of public accommodation,” meaning nearly all private businesses.
This will be a dream-come-true for predatory, phonebook trial attorneys. Indeed, politeness and interpersonal respect for human dignity are important. Transgender Coloradans should be treated with the dignity and respect due anyone else.
Calling people what they prefer is basic decency. But mistakes happen. Forgetting a new name isn’t always bullying; it is human to err.
Deliberate rudeness stings, but it can’t be made a crime. This bill’s 26 pages of jargon don’t distinguish intent. Anyone making an accidental slip would break the law.
Colorado is already notorious for abusing its non-discrimination statutes and ruining lives (i.e., cake designer Jack Phillips), as determined twice by the United States Supreme Court.
This law would open the floodgates for abuse. The legislature’s timing seems suspicious. Introduced late in the session, Democrats are rushing it through as if fentanyl deaths (up 101% since 2019) or school proficiency (27.
4% in math, CDE 2023) don’t matter. Social media posts scream disbelief, calling this everything from “re-education” for businesses to a tool for trampling parental rights. This isn’t about safety or civil rights.
This is the far-left majority — much of it hand-picked and appointed by Colorado’s Democratic machine — dictating how people talk and bring up children. Schools don’t need a state edict to nix gendered dress codes. Local boards can handle that, as they’ve done throughout the modern era, allowing Amish farm communities to govern differently than urban and suburban districts.
The bill’s one-size-fits-all approach stomps on community values, forcing principals to play pronoun cop instead of educator. A foundational freedom is at stake. The First Amendment guards our right to speak, even clumsily.
It protects our right to say ugly, controversial and unkind words. Colorado’s Constitution echoes that in Article II, Section 10. HB 1312’s vague “coercive control” net — covering “threats to disclose” gender info — could chill honest discussions in homes.
Courts don’t need this clutter; they’re busy enough without refereeing family spats over “he” versus “they.” Politeness should be a social norm, not a statutory hammer. Make it a crime, and we will have neighbors snitching over backyard chats.
Legislators, fix our real problems of crime, housing, and unacceptable student outcomes. HB 1312 is a divisive solution hunting for a problem. Mostly, it is a means of unlawful state control of schools, homes, individuals and private enterprise.
Be kind and use preferred names, absolutely. But let's not punish simple mistakes, unkind behavior and local mores. Colorado businesses, families and schools deserve better than this authoritarian meddling in human relationships.
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