Throughout 2025, Colorado conservatives, emboldened by the Trump administration, have continued to demonize LGBTQ people and fight policies that protect their rights. Fights have continued at the state legislature, local school boards, and more.
Here is a roundup of the Colorado Times Recorder‘s coverage of LGBTQ issues this year.
Anti-LGBTQ Activists Preparing for School Board Elections, Lawsuits
By Sean Beedle, Jan. 6, 2025
“Recent media appearances from some of Colorado’s most vocal conservative education activists indicate that the playbook for 2025 will focus on three tried and true issues — diversity programs, transgender people, and unions.”
‘Vote Us Out of Office,’ Says Board Member To People Who Don’t Support LGBTQ and BLM Flags in Durango Schools
By Ryan Simonovich, Jan. 15, 2025
The Durango School District 9-R Board of Education is moving forward with two resolutions supporting the display of Progress Pride and Black Lives Matter flags in classrooms. The board argues this will effectively null the Colorado Republican Party’s concern that the flags violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Anti-Trans Activist Who Called LGBT Democrats ‘Slaves on the Rainbow Plantation’ Files to Run for CD6
By Jamie O’Rourke, Feb. 20, 2025
Anti-trans activist Rich Guggenheim filed in February to run for the state’s 6th Congressional District in 2026. But less than a week after this story was published, he terminated his campaign, citing infighting by Colorado Republicans:
“All the hours spent in testimony at the capitol, all the traveling across Colorado to support girls sports, all the time and energy spent going toe to toe and nose to nose with trans rights activists, being kicked out of gay bars, and being called every filthy word you can imagine could not prepare me for the way I was treated by county and state leadership within the Colorado GOP,” he wrote on Facebook.
Republican Lawmakers, Pastors, LGBTQ Group Raise Concerns About Trans Rights Bill
By Sean Beedle, Apr. 18, 2025
Colorado Republican legislators and pastors gathered at the Capitol 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.”
Former CO Congressional Candidate Joins Extremist, Anti-Trans Group’s National Board
By Jamie O’Rourke, May 12, 2025
A Colorado activist, former radio host, and occasional political candidate has recently taken a leadership role at the prominent far-right activist group Moms for Liberty.
How GOP Legislators Manufactured Outrage Against a Transgender Rights Bill in Colorado
By Jamie O’Rourke, May 29, 2025
Despite widespread support and an unassailable Democratic majority in both Colorado’s state House and Senate, House Bill 1312, which codifies landmark protections for transgender people, was widely believed to be in jeopardy, with one prominent LGBTQ group changing its position multiple times. Some of its most consequential provisions were ultimately left on the cutting room floor before it was signed by Gov. Jared Polis, who had himself left room for doubt on his support.
CO Springs Board of Education Candidates Running on Trans Sports Bans
By Sean Beedle, Jun. 18, 2025
Colorado Republicans held a town hall Saturday for El Paso County board of education candidates. The primary focus of all candidates was policies banning transgender athletes from competing in sports associated with their chosen gender.
CO Democrats & Veterans Groups Condemn Trump Air Force Policy That Strips Transgender Service Members of Early Retirement
By Owen Swallow, Aug. 14, 2025
The U.S. Air Force issued a memo earlier in August denying early retirement to all transgender service members with between 15 and 18 years of military service and giving them a choice: quit or be forced out with no retirement. Today, the Colorado Democratic Party, Colorado Democratic Veterans Council (CDVC), and the Stonewall Democrats of Colorado condemned the move as punitive and discriminatory.
CO Gun Activists Reject Trump Admin’s Plan to Ban Trans People From Owning Firearms
By Jamie O’Rourke, Sept. 8, 2025
Reports have circulated that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering a rule change that would ban transgender people from owning firearms. But the idea has garnered criticism from gun advocates both in Colorado and nationally, with one saying such a ban would be “flagrantly illegal.”
Turning Catholic Churches into Campaign Hubs, Bishops Instruct Churches to Collect Signatures for Anti-Trans Ballot Initiatives
By Jamie O’Rourke, Oct. 31, 2025
Stepping up its involvement in anti-trans political campaigns, Colorado’s Catholic Bishops have directed parishioners to gather signatures at church to place anti-trans initiatives on next year’s election ballot.
Christians Who Don’t Sign Anti-Trans Petitions Are ‘Traitors’ to Jesus, Says Flatirons Pastor
By Jamie O’Rourke, Dec. 17, 2025
“If you’re a Christian, to not … engage in this spiritual battle to protect kids, to me, is the equivalent of mutiny and deserting your post,” Jim Burgen said in a sermon promoting anti-LGBTQ ballot initiatives.
