No.
The Kelly Loving Act, a bill passed in 2025 that created legal protections for transgender people, does not criminalize misgendering someone in Colorado.
Early versions of the bill defined misgendering and deadnaming — purposefully using the birth name of an individual rather than their chosen name — as discriminatory acts in public places of accommodation, like businesses, under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. Discrimination in these settings can lead to $3,500 in civil penalties under CADA, but do not lead to jail time.
The bill’s final version removed these terms, instead clarifying that refusing to use a person’s chosen name or how they choose to be addressed can be used as evidence of discrimination in a lawsuit.
A law passed in 2021 already prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and gender expression in Colorado. A total of 22 states and Washington D.C. prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.
See full source list below.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
The Colorado Sun partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. Read our methodology to learn how we check claims.