Colorado voters will be asked in November whether the state should prohibit transgender kids from participating in gendered sports that do not align with their biological sex and whether to outlaw surgery on children for the purpose of altering their sex characteristics.
Voters will also decide whether to make child sex trafficking in Colorado punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The questions will be asked through three statewide ballot measures that qualified for the ballot over the past week. State elections officials approved the voter signatures collected for the initiatives by the conservative activists behind them.
The three measures are:
- Initiative 108, which would make child sex trafficking punishable by life in prison without the possibility of parole.
- Initiative 109, which would prohibit transgender kids from participating in gendered sports that do not align with their biological sex. It would also apply to collegiate sports in Colorado.
- Initiative 110, which would prohibit surgery on a child for the purpose of altering their biological sex characteristics and also prohibit the use of state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursement or insurance coverage to pay for that type of surgery.
Initiative 110 was the final of the three measures to make the ballot. The signatures collected for it were approved Tuesday.
Protect Kids Colorado is the group behind the initiatives. The organization, a state issue committee formed to raise and spend money in support of the measures, had to collect more than 125,000 voter signatures for each of the questions to get them on the ballot.
“We’re empowering everyday Coloradans to take action, protect children, and restore common-sense policies through the citizen-led lawmaking process,” Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, said in a written statement once the group’s signature-gathering efforts were complete.
A group called Rocky Mountain Equality, a nonprofit that supports LGBTQ rights, is fighting initiatives 109 and 110. It said in a statement that the questions are “an attack on Colorado families modeled after national extremist efforts.”
Families Not Politics is the issue committee formed to fight initiatives 109 and 110.
Already on the November statewide ballot are questions that would amend the state constitution to require that state and local law enforcement work more closely with federal immigration officials and to increase penalties for fentanyl possession and distribution.
Voters statewide may also be asked a series of tax-related questions in November.