Colorado Republican legislators and pastors gathered at the Capitol yesterday to oppose House Bill 25-1312, the Kelly Loving Act, named after one of the victims of the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. The bill would require courts to consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control when making custody decisions; protect transgender patients and their parents from out-of-state actions; allow students to choose between sex-based dress code options; and define deadnaming and misgendering as discriminatory acts in the “Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.”
Conservatives argue that the bill is a form of compelled speech and would disproportionately impact Christian parents.
“This bill does not just affect our freedom to proclaim the good news of the gospel and God’s divine orders, but it also directly attacks our neighbors who will suffer from the unjust law being run through the Legislature as we speak,” said Chase Davis, pastor of the Well Church in Boulder and one of the organizers of the event. “We call upon the churches of Colorado to defy radical transgender ideology and uphold the divine order, and I implore the most influential in our state to hold fast.”
Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-Colorado Springs), who earlier this year announced his run for Governor in 2026, urged pastors and churches to get more politically involved. “I’m going to tell our people to vote,” he said. “Pastors that have never told their people to vote [are] saying you need to get out and vote. You don’t have to tell them how to vote. Just open the Bible and say, ‘Vote.’”
National conservative activist William Wolfe, the executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership and a former Trump administration official, also urged churches to get involved in political fights.
“There’s 45,000 Southern Baptist churches in this country,” he said. “There’s 300 here in Colorado. Why aren’t 300 churches here today? Because the church is asleep at the wheel, and we need to wake up. It is a privilege to be here today. Stand with all of you in this fight in this noble and righteous cause. It’s a critical, civilizational fight to protect our children.”
Rep. Jarvis Caldwell’s (R-Monument) social media posts drew attention and outrage over the bill in the weeks leading up to the event. “This is not my ideology,” he said. “I’m not the one pushing this stuff on kids. They [Democrats] are. It’s in our commercials, it’s in Disney movies, it in our YouTube ads, it is in our schools. It’s their ideology and with this bill they’re saying if we confuse your children and you don’t go along with it we’ll take your children from you, and I’m not okay with that.”
Rep. Brandi Bradley (R-Littleton), leader of a Douglas County chapter of the national anti-LGBTQ group Moms for Liberty, also addressed the crowd of approximately 200 people. “We are not going to stand for it anymore,” she said. “When you call parent groups hate groups and you call the churches cults, guess what happened? This is what happens.”
According to one of the bill’s sponsors, conservatives aren’t the only ones raising concerns about the bill.
“It is no surprise that mainstream LGBTQ orgs always put trans [people] last,” wrote Rep. Lorena Garcia (D-Denver) in a social media post on Saturday, April 12. “But to actively try to kill a trans rights bill behind the scenes is even more disappointing. I will not give in to hate and fear-mongering, especially when it comes to those who are the prime target of the Trump regime.”
Garcia did not respond to an email asking which LGBTQ group she was specifically referring to. This story will be updated with any response received.
Yesterday, One Colorado, the state’s leading LGBTQ advocacy group, changed their stance on the bill from “support” to “amend,” signalling a withdrawal of support from the coalition supporting the bill.
In response to a request for further comment, a spokesperson from One Colorado said in an emailed statement, “We are grateful to Colorado lawmakers for their commitment to taking steps to ensure all Coloradans, including trans people, receive the respect and care they need. We are working with local families, transgender community leaders, and legal experts to ensure the language of this bill reflects current best practices so that our trans loved ones, our youth, families, friends, and coworkers can be themselves and thrive.”
James O’Rourke contributed to this reporting.
