Originally published on June 9, 2025
Conservatives gathered on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol to hold a Pentecost Sunday worship service that was equal parts political pandering and religious hate-mongering against the transgender community.
U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Christian singer-songwriter Sean Feucht hosted the service. Although the event featured worship music and prayer, it was a thinly veiled protest against Colorado’s Kelly Loving Act, a law the General Assembly passed during the 2025 legislative session that provides transgender individuals with additional legal protections.
More than 100 people from across Colorado attended the event, many of whom were dressed in shirts and hats reading “Save Our Children,” a common rallying cry among anti-trans groups. Volunteers combed the crowd, registering attendees to vote.
The service concluded with a large baptism of children and a call to join the Let Us Worship movement, a revivalist organization led by Feucht that calls on Christians to develop a fervent personal relationship with God.
Despite the hate-mongering, symbols of inclusion were present at the event. A pride flag also hung on the banister above the steps where the service took place and outside the nearby First Baptist Church of Denver on North Grant St. The Progress Rainbow flag, which symbolizes ongoing inclusion for the LGBTQIA+ community, flew at The Starkey Mansion a couple of blocks away on Logan Street.
It was held at a time when federal data shows the number of hate crimes committed against people because of their gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation has increased by 72% between 2020 and 2023. As of 2023, 102 people were victims of hate crimes compared to 59 in 2020.
“It’s no coincidence this protest is happening during Pride month, a time when communities across race, class, and gender come together to celebrate our freedom to live openly and love fully,” Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, an LGBTQIA+ advocacy organization, told Colorado Times Recorder in an email.
“But instead of supporting families and showing up for what Coloradans value most, freedom, some politicians and extremist groups are spreading fear and misinformation to divide us and hold onto power. We deserve leaders who bring us together, not ones who scapegoat transgender people to distract from their failure to deliver for our communities,” Bridges continued.
The Kelly Loving Act
The Kelly Loving Act is named after a 40-year-old victim of the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs in 2022. The shooting took place on November 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which honors all members of the LGBTQIA+ community who have been killed because of homophobia.
The bill makes several changes to state law. For instance, it requires courts to consider deadnaming, misgendering, and threats related to someone pursuing gender-affirming care in custody decisions. It also defines deadnaming and misgendering as discriminatory acts under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
Deadnaming refers to the practice of calling a transgender or non-binary individual by the name they no longer use. Similarly, misgendering refers to the intentional use of the pronouns that a transgender or non-binary individual no longer identifies with.
Multiple groups filed a lawsuit at the end of May seeking to overturn the Kelly Loving Act, saying it violates free speech and parental rights.
Colorado lawmakers passed the bill at a time when federal lawmakers have targeted the LGBTQIA+ community for political persecution.
One of the first executive orders President Donald Trump issued after assuming office in January was to protect the “immutable biological reality of sex” by only recognizing two genders. This made it impossible for transgender people to renew federal identification documents like a passport with a gender marker other than the one they were assigned at birth.
Trump has also reinstituted a federal ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, directed federal agencies to block gender-affirming care at local hospitals, prohibited transgender individuals from participating in high school sports, and reinstated a global gag rule to block funding for international gender-affirming care procedures.
In March, Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self deliberately deadnamed Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware, a transgender woman, during a hearing of the Europe subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Democrats issued a stern rebuke of Self’s remarks. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina came to his defense.
Hateful preaching
The Pentecost Sunday service at the Colorado Capitol was more of the same from conservatives.
It began with music and dancing, as many church services do. The message quickly descended into politics as ministers prayed for Denver to be delivered from the “darkness that hangs over our city” and the “demonic agenda” that is ruining Christian families. Attendees waved flags that read “I [Love] Jesus” and “Jesus is King” while the ministers spoke.
Feucht invoked the spirit of Pentecost Sunday, which is when Jesus’ 12 apostles felt the Holy Spirit, during his sermon. He preached about when Peter and John were arrested, as described in Chapter 4 of the Book of Acts, and declared that Christians should be bold about their beliefs. He also called on attendees to follow the Bible before any laws passed by the Colorado state government.
Feucht also claimed Gov. Jared Polis, who is the first openly gay Governor in Colorado’s history, was “perverting our children” by supporting the Kelly Loving Act.
“We declare June to be ‘Life Month’,” Feucht said, suggesting that queer and transgender identities are a sort of death. “We’re flipping the script on the enemy. It doesn’t matter what is passed in this Legislature.”
Recently, Feucht was the subject of a a whistleblower report, calling for him to be “removed from positions of leadership and financial stewardship,” by four former employees. The report accused Feucht of spiritual abuse and financial mismanagement at his various ministries.
One song that the band played throughout the service was “I Thank God (Get Up Out of That Grave)” by contemporary worship choir Tribl.
Boebert’s remarks were just as incendiary. She declared that the Colorado politicians who supported the Kelly Loving Act were “demonic.” The bill’s prime sponsors were all Democrats, and it passed the General Assembly along party lines.
She also attempted to weave in her reading of scripture, although her analysis seemed to be confused at best.
For example, Boebert claimed “God is the original deadnamer” because he changed Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name to Sarah in Genesis. However, this is not an example of deadnaming as God never refers to these people by their former names again after they are changed.
Boebert connected God changing the names of Abraham and Sarah to the deadnaming protections in the Kelly Loving Act to suggest that the legal protections are “a perversion of God’s plan.”
Prior to the service, on May 23, Boebert said on right-wing radio that the event was intended to inspire Christians to take action. She called Feucht “amazing.”
“If Christians just remain silent, we lose by default,” she said on KNUS’ Jeff and Bill Show. “And so we are going to go and talk about the egregious 1312 bill [Kelly Loving Act] that is that has been signed into law here in Colorado that really prioritizes this woke agenda of transgenderism, this mental disorder of transgender-ism, and we are going to gather together and pray and worship and put God as the center and God as our focus because that is what we need in Colorado.
“We need revival here in Colorado, and we need those who are wandering and who are hearing these things to really have a spirit of wisdom and revelation that their eyes would be open to God’s calling for their life. And so, we are going there.”
