Colorado voters are deciding on two interconnected statewide ballot measures that would severely limit the freedom of transgender Americans, broadly alter state law, and establish rigid statewide rules that override the decision-making power of local communities, clinical expertise, and parents.
Proposition 134 would transfer athletic policy authority from local school boards and the Colorado High School Activities Association to the state Commissioner of Education.
- The proposition offers no formal appeals process for affected students or families.
- It would override long-established guidelines developed through localized school board governance and interscholastic bodies like the Colorado High School Activities Association. The decentralized approach allowed local educators and administrators to balance student inclusion, competitive fairness, and community standards.
- Proposition 134 strips local districts of authority to adapt policy to their communities, centralizing oversight to the state Commissioner of Education.
- Cisgender girls also face heightened risk. Students can be subjected to physical appearance questioning, official identity investigations, and invasive gender verification processes simply to participate in school sports.
- The statutory text contains no mechanism for an appeals process or administrative recourse for families whose children are accused of being transgender. Parents have no defined legal pathway within the educational system to defend their child’s privacy or appeal administrative determinations.
Proposition 135 would prohibit health care professionals from practicing medically necessary health care for transgender youth that is supported by every major medical association.
- The measure bans the use of state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursements, and private insurance coverage for certain medical procedures, overriding parental consent and physician judgment in pediatric health care decisions.
- Colorado state law already establishes a comprehensive legal framework requiring parental consent for minor health care; Proposition 135 overrides parental and physician decision-making authority by imposing a blanket statewide prohibition on specific care options regardless of parental consent.
- Proposition 135 inserts statutory mandates directly into private examination rooms. By legally penalizing care providers and prohibiting insurance reimbursement, the measure overrides the traditional legal right of parents to guide their children’s healthcare in consultation with qualified medical professionals.
- Colorado state law already maintains rigorous standards requiring parental consent for medical procedures performed on minors. Rather than filling a regulatory void, Proposition 135 expands state power to invalidate existing parental consent, prohibiting medical options even when parents, pediatricians, and mental health specialists unanimously agree the care is in the child’s best interest.
- Major medical organizations—including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association—support individualized, age-appropriate care guided privately by parents, patients, and qualified healthcare professionals. Medical consensus opposes statewide statutory bans that restrict clinical judgment, invalidate parental consent, or limit access to standard pediatric health care.
Anti-LGBTQ groups outside Colorado are using the state to test radical ballot measures to be deployed elsewhere. State opposition to Propositions 134 and 135 include Families Not Politics, ACLU, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, One Colorado, Colorado Education Association, Colorado Medical Society, AAP Colorado Chapter, and Colorado Academy of Family Physicians, the Denver Public School Board and faith leaders statewide.
The Denver Post and Durango Herald have endorsed NO on both Proposition 134 and 135.
Additional Consequences
Both measures transfer decision-making authority away from parents, qualified pediatricians, local school boards, and the Colorado High School Activities Association to establish broad, far-reaching statewide government mandates.
Both measures create significant collateral consequences for non-transgender youth. Proposition 134 exposes any female athlete who is exceptionally tall, strong, fast, or non-stereotypically feminine to potential identity questioning and invasive gender verification checks to participate in sports.
Proposition 135 features broadly written statutory definitions that create legal ambiguity around routine, non-surgical pediatric care, potentially disrupting treatments for common conditions.
Additional Facts:
- 339,600 LGBTQ people live in Colorado, 6.8% of the population (Movement Advancement Project)
- 25% of LGBTQ adults in Colorado are raising children
- GLAAD ALERT Desk (Anti-LGBTQ Extremism Reporting Tracker): Tracks anti-LGBTQ incidents nationwide, documenting the toll of anti-LGBTQ rhetoric on the physical and psychological safety of both LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ Americans.
- Colorado: Since June 2022, Colorado has faced over 114anti-LGBTQ incidents, including 5 violent assaults, 2 arson attempts, and 4 bomb / shooting threats.
