School districts across Colorado are developing policies outlining how teachers and staff will honor student requests to use a chosen name as a result of this year’s non-legal name change bill. Last night, Pueblo’s School District 60 Board of Education passed just such a policy, with the caveat that parents must be notified if a child wants to use a name other than their legal name. LGBTQ activists and allies say mandatory parental notification puts youth at risk from hostile parents.
“When I was questioning my sexual orientation, when I was questioning my place in society, I had the privilege of having a trusted adults that I could have those conversations with, without the concern that it would involve my parents because I wasn’t ready for that,” said Nick Voss during a rally before the meeting. “The reason why those were trusted adults is because I knew that they had my back, that they were there to help educate me on what the future could potentially hold. And it is through their encouragement and their support, I was finally able to come out to my parents, my Trump-loving parents, and I have a great relationship with them. Now, had that decision been taken away from me? Had that decision been forced upon me by a policy that is being debated and being pushed by people like the school board, President Susan Pannunzio, this would be a very different conversation that I would have had with my parents and it would have put me in jeopardy and attacked my personal autonomy.”
Joining Voss at the rally was former Colorado representative at current Pueblo County Commissioner Daneya Esgar. “This is something that we absolutely need to continue to work on and push on, to stand up for our kids every single day, and especially those marginalized youth,” she said. “It would be amazing if we didn’t have to have this law. It would be amazing if every student came from a loving family that endorses anything that they do, that supports the kids that will be there with open arms. Not every student has that at home, and that is not their fault. So if they can find a trusted adult that’s able to do that for them and help shelter them and help them move through their expressions, their identity process, let’s let them. … We’re here to protect our kids. Every single day we’re here to protect our trans kids or non-binary kids.”
Conservative activist groups — like Moms for Liberty, the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, and Libs of TikTok — opposed House Bill 1039, arguing that it would “hide gender transitions from parents.”
While House Bill 1039 requires that districts adopt policies to comply with the law, the bill makes no mention of parental notification. “There’s absolutely nothing in the bill that says that a school may not contact the parent to let them know that this is going on,” Rep. Stephanie Vigil (D-CO Springs), one of the bill’s sponsors, told Colorado Times Recorder earlier this month.
After passage of the bill, El Paso County’s Moms for Liberty chapter has created a model policy requiring parental notification for school districts and is urging its activists to pressure districts into adopting it.
During public comment, three speakers supported parental notification, with one calling D60 Board member Dennis Maes a “groomer,” another claiming that a majority of Americans are “against wokeness,” and another speaker who claimed it was impossible for people to change their gender. Six speakers, including a Pueblo High School student, spoke in opposition to including parental notification in the policy.
“This is a coordinated effort — I’m going to say what’s happening — by Christian nationalists who are ushering in fascism at an unprecedented speed,” said D60 parent Jordan Mecham. “You all see it. You all know it deep down. Forging Pueblo is behind this, they sent out the opposite of what we sent out to keep kids safe, while they’re pushing their agenda in every space they can.”
Forging Pueblo is a group whose mission statement mirrors those of the Seven Mountain dominionists, and includes on its board of directors Tamra Axworthy, the executive director of Pueblo’s A Caring Pregnancy Center, an anti-abortion crisis pregnancy center, and Rep. Stephanie Luck (R-Penrose). Pueblo City Council President Mark Aliff has appeared in promotional videos for the group, and last year Forging Pueblo’s political committee, Forging the Future, supported four candidates for D60’s Board of Education. Two of those candidates, Pannunzio and Brian Cisneros, won election to the board in 2023.
Board member William Thiebaut noted that this new policy, which requires parental notification, will conflict with a 2016 policy that explicitly prohibits parental notification without the student’s consent. D60 policy ACE-3 states, “School personnel should not disclose information that may reveal a student’s transgender status or gender nonconforming presentation to others, including parents and other school personnel, unless legally required to do so or unless the student has authorized such disclosure. Students who are transgender and gender nonconforming have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share private information.”
Thiebaut twice introduced amendments to strike parental notification from the new policy, but the amendment failed 3-2 with Maes joining Thiebaut. The board adopted the policy with parental notification on a 3-2 vote.
“This law is pretty specific,” said Maes. “It says that if a student wants to select the chosen name, ‘you shall’ use that child’s name. It doesn’t say ‘you may’ or you may refer to some committee to see whether or not they agree with that. That’s not what that says. As a matter of fact, I would be willing to suggest that if, in fact, a student says this is the chosen they want to have and there is further inquiry by anybody into why that student is taking that position, that’s harassment in and of itself.”
The passage of the policy was celebrated by Colorado Republican National Committeewoman Christy “Ruckus” Fidura on Facebook. “Congratualtions to D60 school board members Sue Pannunzio, Brian Cisneros, and Kathy DeNiro and parents!” she wrote. “Tonight, the board voted to require parental notification of any name change of a student making sure parents remain part of the conversation regarding their own kids. Great work everyone!”
In the comments, Fidura clarified the type of name changes that the policy would apply to. “Like a name change from Amber to Buttons the Iguana or from Andrew to CandyPants,” she wrote.
