Transgender

17-year-old D, a gender non-conforming high school student poses for a recent photo.

Pronouns, bathrooms and field trips: on gender identity, some CO parents and schools are split

Leigh Paterson

Once known as the Hate State, Colorado has become more accepting of LGBTQ+ people. Now, heated exchanges over gender identity are playing out in school districts across the state. Some are adopting gender inclusive guidelines, outlining how to support transgender and non-binary students. How and when to involve parents is up for debate.

a physician wearing black scrubs and bright pink Crocs speaks to a patient sitting on a bench in an exam room

The Colorado Dream

Colorado emerges as a leader for transgender health care as access varies across the nation

Stephanie Daniel

Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Amendment 2 in 1996, Colorado has emerged as a leader for LGBTQ+ rights and laws this includes ensuring transgender and non-binary people have access to the health care they need. Plus a Northern Colorado medical recsidency program is normalizing HIV care in a primary care clinic.

Erin Lee, a mother of three from Larimer County, stands in front of a booth at a recent homeschooling conference in south Denver. Lee was there gathering signatures for a proposed ballot initiative addressing gender in schools.

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Should parents be notified when students change their pronouns? These Coloradans say, yes

Leigh Paterson

Backers of a proposed ballot initiative are up against the clock to gather over 100,000 signatures before next week鈥檚 deadline. The measure they hope to get on the ballot this November would require schools to inform parents about gender identity issues.

Republican-pushed bills are seeking to deny minors access to hormone therapy and puberty blockers. Both are treatments that have been vetted and peer-reviewed by mainstream medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Regional 暗黑爆料

Wyoming鈥檚 ban on gender-affirming care for minors goes into effect

The Cowboy State is the latest state in the Mountain West to implement such a ban, which restricts medical treatment for minors undergoing gender transition.

Jack Phillips is a white man with glasses and reddish brown hair. This shows him up close speaking into a microphone at a press conference about his right to refuse cake baking services to those in the LGBTQ+ community that want to celebrate gender transitions and gay marriage.

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Colorado justices consider a pink and blue cake's meaning in a transgender discrimination case

Mead Gruver, Associated Press

The Colorado Supreme Court is considering whether a Christian baker can refuse to make a cake to celebrate a gender transition. The justices heard about a variety of hypothetical cake-design scenarios on Tuesday in the case of a transgender woman who asked for a pink-and-blue cake to celebrate her gender transition.

Sweeping view of the inside of the Colorado Supreme Court courtroom. Pews line the foreground, almost like being in a church, with a sumptuous red carpet on the floor. A podium can be seen through the aisle. At the front is a large bench where the judges sit, with a seal at the middle. It's all under the skylights of a dome. No one is in the picture.

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Dispute over transgender woman admitted to Wyoming sorority to be argued before appeal judges

Mead Gruver, Associated Press

A lawsuit filed by six members of a University of Wyoming sorority who are challenging the admission of a transgender woman into their local chapter will be argued in an appeals court Tuesday. The case is set to be argued before the three-judge U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

The debate has been popping up in statehouses across the nation in recent months, predominantly in conservative, rural states, including at a hearing of the Arizona Senate鈥檚 Health and Human Services Committee in February. Republican lawmakers in several states have resurrected and expanded the fight over whether transgender people may use bathrooms and other facilities that do not match their sex assigned at birth.

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Bathroom bills are back 鈥� broader and stricter 鈥� in several states

Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez, KFF Health 暗黑爆料

The Colorado State Capitol's front facade on a sunny day. A lone jogger is going by in front.

Politics

Colorado lawmakers clash over bills to protect transgender people's use of a chosen name

Associated Press

The Democratic majority in Colorado's House has pushed forward two bills protecting transgender people's chosen names. The proposals stirred emotional debate on Colorado's House floor on Friday, and they were pushed forward roughly on party lines to the Senate.

Taliyah Murphy poses for a portrait outside the Denver City and County Building before a hearing on Jan. 4, 2023.

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Colorado legal settlement would up care and housing standards for trans women inmates

Moe Clark, KFF Health 暗黑爆料

A soon-to-be finalized legal settlement would offer transgender women in Colorado prisons new housing options, including a pipeline to the Denver Women鈥檚 Correctional Facility. The change comes amid a growing number of lawsuits across the country aimed at improving health care access and safety for incarcerated trans people.

Lucas and his son Alec sit next to each other indoors on a blue couch smiling.

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Leaving Texas, families with transgender children seek refuge in Colorado

Alison Berg and Elle Naef, Rocky Mountain PBS

As state legislatures across the country enact laws targeting transgender people, families are looking to Colorado as a safe haven.