As we slowly inch towards this November’s midterm elections, it’s important to keep a watchful eye out for harmful measures making the ballot. That’s exactly what is happening in Colorado this year, as ballot measures 109 and 110 have both weaseled their way into this year’s vote.
Ballot Initiative 109 seeks to define sex binaries for children in the language of future state legislature, separated by birth sex into “boys and girls,” while the purpose of Ballot Initiative 110 is to bar doctors in the state from performing gender-affirming surgeries on minors. It’s also meant to block state and federal funding for healthcare programs like Medicaid from covering gender-affirming procedures.
Two hospitals in the state offer gender-affirming care for minors, UC Health Anschutz and Denver Health. Neither perform gender-affirming surgeries for minors, although they do provide HRT to trans teens. Banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors is pretty redundant, obviously, since no physicians in the state will do it anyway. But the underlying aspect of 110 is much more concerning, considering it will prevent all trans people on Medicaid from accessing gender-affirming care, not just minors.
It’s more than a little concerning that blocking funding for gender-affirming care is slipped in there so casually. It’s a secondary component to the more inflammatory, headline-snatching drama of banning surgeries. Conservatives are overly obsessed with the (imaginary) concept of minors going under the knife for top or bottom surgery, especially at school, where students are supposedly being subjected to “brutal operation(s)” according to Trump. He’s repeated the blatantly false and delusional claim that “kid(s) go to school and comes home a few days later with an operation,” despite no evidence existing that a gender-affirming procedure has ever been performed in a school—a fact that should be obvious.
Ballot measure 109 is also a problem. Restricting Colorado statute from referring to minors as anything but their birth sex would certainly cause lots of problems down the line. Once that door is open, it could create an opening where transphobic lawmakers could impose policy on kids based on sex.
A campaign called Families not Politics seeks to stop measures 109 and 110 from becoming state law and making Colorado a less safe place for trans people, and the queer community at large. Their goal is to educate Coloradans about measures 109 and 110 through elevating voices in support of the trans community, including doctors, parents, and community leaders. Those who wish to donate to the cause can do so here.
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