Erin 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."
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.
Last week, a set of anti-trans initiatives was approved for Colorado’s 2026 ballot. The Colorado Times Recorder has been tracking these initiatives, and the anti-LGBTQ activist group Protect Kids Colorado that has pushed them with help from conservative politicians and religious ministries, for over two years. Here’s all the news you might have missed.
"We thought there was a professional funder who was going to run a parallel effort for these initiatives, and that fell through. Because all of the big money around the country said, 'Colorado, no, we're not going to do this there.'"
An anti-LGBTQ organization pushing to get initiatives on the 2026 ballot has previously gathered signatures exclusively through volunteers. But with just days left to qualify, the group has now hired a professional firm.
To most people, the word ‘plague’ conjures images of widespread infectious disease and death. It’s also the word that former GOP lawmaker Kevin Lundberg used to describe the transgender rights movement in Colorado, as his organization Protect Kids Colorado seeks enough petition signatures to put anti-trans initiatives on the 2026 ballot.
"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.
Of the 87 ballot initiatives listed on the website for the Colorado Title Board, which manages the state's ballot initiative process, Advance Colorado president Michael Fields is listed as a proponent for 61 of them.
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.
Protect Kids Colorado, an organization formed last year to promote ballot initiatives that would negatively impact the rights of Colorado’s transgender community, is gearing up once again to submit initiatives to the Title Board in an effort to get on the 2026 ballot.
