At the Colorado Republican Party’s county assemblies last weekend, U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans (R-CO) took credit for a local hospital pausing gender-affirming care for trans youth. He also claimed that he and his office had worked to ensure anti-trans ballot measures would qualify for the 2026 ballot.
Evans’ speech at the Adams County GOP assembly began by touting his endorsements by U.S. President Donald Trump and the far-right political group Turning Point USA Action. He said he earned these endorsements by fighting “DEI.”
“I’m proud to be the two-time Donald Trump-endorsed candidate for this race. I’m also endorsed by Turning Point USA Action and a variety of other organizations because we’ve delivered,” Evans told the audience. “We’ve secured the border. We’ve delivered the largest tax cut in American history to the country. We’ve done things like get DEI out of our government and out of our other big systems.”
DEI, an acronym for “Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion” referring mostly to corporate inclusivity and anti-bias programs, has become a catch-all for Republicans like Evans aiming to push back on social issues, particularly LGBTQ rights.
Evans cited a controversy last year in which GOP activists, including his primary opponent Adam DeRito, attacked him for voting against a bill which would have criminalized doctors who provide transgender healthcare to minors. Evans attempted to frame his vote against this bill as the more conservative position, pointing instead to his vote on a separate bill to “preemptively defund” institutions providing gender-affirming care.
“You hold the entire system accountable, and you prevent that transgendering [sic] from happening in the first place when it’s not funded,” Evans said. “That’s what I’m voting for. That is why Denver Health [isn’t doing] procedures to transgender kids. That’s why they’re not doing it right now.”
Evans’ claim that Denver Health stopped offering gender-affirming care earlier this year because of the legislation he voted for is false. The bill, H.R.6703, which would bar Medicaid funds from institutions that provide youth gender-affirming care, was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in December, but the Senate has not yet voted on it. Denver Health stopped offering these procedures following pressure from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). A spokesperson for Evans did not respond to a request for comment on this matter.
Evans went on to tout his support for a set of anti-trans initiatives that recently qualified for Colorado’s ballot.
“And by the way, that’s what the petitions that are on the ballot now also did. That is the exact same process that they followed,” Evans said. “I supported those petitions. I endorsed those petitions. I signed those petitions. And I did social media to help those petitions get on the ballot. We are fighting back against DEI.”
In January, Evans posted a video to social media of him signing petitions for and endorsing the initiatives.
The ballot initiatives, proposed by anti-LGBTQ activist group Protect Kids Colorado, are not exactly like H.R.6703, as Evans suggests. One would ban certain rare gender-related surgical procedures from being performed on anyone under 18, and the other would ban trans youth from playing sports.
The third doesn’t have anything at all to do with trans kids, and would instead increase penalties for sex trafficking of minors. In lumping the three initiatives together, intentionally or not, Evans becomes the latest supporter of the initiatives to baselessly conflate LGBTQ people with child predators.
Evans repeated these claims at the Weld County GOP assembly later that weekend, adding this time that his office had helped to get the initiatives on the ballot – as opposed to Evans supporting them in a personal capacity.
“We have also helped, my office helped get the ballot initiatives, the three petitions here in Colorado to prevent those surgeries, on the ballot. We did social media and endorsed those, I signed those. We are pushing back against the DEI,” Evans said.
If Evans’s office really did help get Protect Kids Colorado’s initiatives on the ballot, that would likely mean he spent taxpayer dollars promoting anti-trans policies.
In an emailed statement to the Colorado Times Recorder, Cal Solverson, Communications Director for the LGBTQ advocacy organization One Colorado, wrote, “This is yet another example of politicians trying to insert themselves into deeply personal decisions that should be left to families. Coloradans don’t want politicians using their power – or taxpayer resources – to interfere in private family decisions. Coloradans value freedom and privacy, and they don’t want the government at any level interfering in the lives of their kids or their health care decisions.”
A spokesperson for Evans did not respond to an email asking how, specifically, his office had supported the initiatives; this story will be updated with any response received.
Evans’s bid for reelection is projected to be one of the tightest races in the country this year.
