Gender identity proposals by Colorado youth council face pushback from conservatives
A group of high school students who have been working on legislative proposals for 2024 got a taste last week of the opposition those bills could draw.
An interim legislative committee aligned with the Colorado Youth Advisory Council reviewed six bills the latter wants to push for in next year's session. The interim committee holds the authority to approve three that would move on to the Legislative Council, which will meet on Nov. 15 to review all bill requests from the interim groups that have been meeting throughout the summer and fall.
Already, two of the three bills the youth council-aligned committee chose are drawing objections from people allied with conservative groups Moms4Liberty, the Christian Home Educators Association and Gays against Groomers.
The Oct. 25 committee meeting pared down the wish list from the youth council from six bills to three, two of which focus on gender identity.
That's what drew opposition from the conservative groups, as well as from committee Republicans.
The first bill the committee reviewed, which ultimately received a party-line 3-2 approval to move forward, deals with modifying the name change process in schools for transgender and gender-diverse students, according to the youth council's Meghan Taylor, a student from Cascade who represents Senate District 12 in El Paso County. Such a name change applies only to the school and is not legally binding. For that, courts have to approve the name change.