Welcome to For The Record, the Colorado Times Recorder’s series where you can hear public figures in their own words. We’ll give you the clip and the context, so you can listen for yourself.
The leader of a group advocating for anti-trans policies to be passed by Colorado voters this year recently told a conservative radio host that all LGBTQ identities are spread as a “social contagion” among kids.
Erin Lee’s career started with her allegations that her daughter had been lured under false pretenses into a secret Gay-Straight Alliance meeting at her school. She has since become the Executive Director of Protect Kids Colorado, a group that has successfully qualified multiple anti-trans initiatives for Colorado’s 2026 ballot.
READ MORE: How Christian-Right Activists Got Anti-Trans Initiatives on Colorado’s Ballot
Lee’s political crusade has largely targeted transgender youth, but when pressed, she said that students are indoctrinated or pressured into assuming other identities, too. She says that the victims of this pressure are “straight white kids,” who only claim an LGBTQ identity to be “cool.”
“Finally, talk to us about peer pressure, and I say that because it’s just not always just trans,” said KVOR Radio host Richard Randall in an interview with Lee on April 1. “I know a lot of female athletes, as they were coming up, and especially junior high, high school especially, and even into college, they had peers who were on their teams, teammates, people they played against, and coaches many times, who are saying, ‘well, are you sure you’re not gay? Because how can you say you’re not gay until you try it?’ Is that far-fetched? Or do you think that happens?”
Lee replied, “There’s a real social contagion element. It’s the adult pressure, like my daughter encountered. It was adults who told her ‘you might be born in the wrong body,’ teachers and activists and administrators and counselors. But it’s also their peers. The more of them latch onto this, it’s almost like it’s not cool to not be LGBTQ. Like, unless you wear one of those labels, you’re not one of the cool kids. It’s almost become like, you know, you have to do it. In some way this oppressor, oppressive, you know, mentality that’s pushed on the kids through their lessons. It’s like, well, they have to adopt some kind of label. They can’t just be a straight white kid. That’s not cool. That’s the oppressor. ‘I have to adopt some kind of a label.’ And that’s why you see such an increase in non-binary and pansexual and these identities that don’t require change. You can just slap the label on and be part of the club. It’s certainly being pushed on kids. There’s a social contagion element.” [CTR Emphasis]
Lee’s claims of “social contagion” refer to a controversial theory, condemned by the broader scientific community, that cisgender children are turned transgender by exposure to other openly trans people, or by learning about the concept of trans people. Typically, it is not explicitly used to describe other LGBTQ identities.
Protect Kids Colorado has enjoyed support from the far-right activist group Gays Against Groomers, which aims to put a wedge between trans people and LGB people.
Listen to the full interview here.
The group has qualified two anti-trans initiatives for Colorado’s ballot: #109 would effectively ban students who are trans from playing sports; #110 would ban certain gender-affirming care procedures from being performed on anyone under 18. Another initiative, #108, aims to increase the penalty for child sex trafficking to life imprisonment.
