Last Wednesday, I went to the Colorado State House to testify against a particularly pernicious bill. There have been a great many of these lately, and more are coming.
It was a very interesting experience.
This particular bill that Focus on the Family had its sights on last week was SB 26-018, which would have forced all parents to affirm their child’s subjective and inventive “gender identity” or risk losing custody of that child. Of course, the ideology driving this bill dictates that affirmation of “trans” identity is the only option for any parent. Try to lovingly help your child with their delusion and the state could take them from you. It is one of the most harmful anti-family bills we have seen.
Here is what I told Colorado legislators considering this new law:
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee,
I am Glenn Stanton, and I work as a researcher at Focus on the Family where I have studied adolescent gender identity for over two decades.
SB-18 is an ill-advised bill. Governor Polis had to pull this proposal at the final hour last year because of negative media and community blow-back. If this bill is so essential for child well-being now, why not last year?
This bill will cut a vulnerable child off from the parent or parents they need the most: Those that do not unquestionably accept a child’s new identity.
The reasons are clear.
1) The best research regularly documents that overwhelmingly, most youth who believe they are “trans” come to live with their biological sex before reaching puberty. Something that is most likely to change is not a “protected class”!
2) The American Psychiatric Associations readily admits “transgender” is neither a medical nor psychiatric diagnosis. It is not something science can recognize because it is a subjective self-perception and ideological construct. This is why desistance rates are, thankfully, so high.
3) Two major medical organizations that were once supportive now refuse hormonal or surgical interventions for gender confused children and adolescents. The American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association announced on Feb 3 there is “insufficient evidence” to guarantee such interventions are not seriously harmful.
But a parent who says any of this in Colorado could lose their child because of this ill-informed legislation.
The research is clearly on the side of the parent who is lovingly skeptical of a child’s new gender claim. The fact is, there is no such thing as a “transgender” child and gender identity is not a scientifically documented reality.
It is a psychic conception.
Colorado has no right to sever the natural parental bond over a minor’s often temporary belief.
But before any testimony was heard, that section — which the bill itself claimed was “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety” — was stricken from the bill at the direction of Colorado’s openly gay governor. Even he knew it was too radical.
The governor’s spokeswoman told The Denver Post he “opposed the contradictory and troublesome family law provisions in the legislation, which were substantially the same as those he opposed last year.” Some trans activist groups in the state also warned the bill was politically problematic.
Yet radical legislators in the Colorado State House ran that bill last year, they tried to bring it back this year, and they will most certainly try again next year. That is why Focus on the Family, along with so many other good citizens across Colorado, testified strongly against this bill. In fact, those testifying against the bill outnumbered those in favor by about 90%. Yet, the bill was passed onto the full Colorado Senate by the judiciary committee.
Focus on the Family will continue to track and oppose such bills across the country.
Related Articles and Resources:
Colorado Bill Would Force Parents to Accept Child’s New ‘Gender Identity’
Colorado Legislature Passes Radical ‘Transgender’ Bill with Amendments
Colorado Law Mandates Health Insurance Coverage for ‘Transgender’ Mutilations
Meet Three Heroes Working to Protect Colorado Children
Parents’ Rights Groups Sue Colorado Over Radical Trans Law
Radical Colorado ‘Transgender’ Bill Threatens Parents’ Rights and Free Speech
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