Colorado’s Republican Party has decided to take a new tactic to motivate its base. And by “new tactic,” I mean the same tactic they have resorted to across the country. Earlier in May, the Colorado GOP sent out a fundraising email urging parents to take their children out of public school over concerns of “LGBTQ indoctrination.”
The fundraising email reads: “Our next policy aims to save Colorado children from progressive Democrats who want to turn more kids trans by requiring teachers to use ‘pronouns’ that do not make any sense and cause gender confusion.”
According to the email, the GOP takes particular issue with a law recently signed by Jared Polis that requires teachers to use a student’s preferred pronouns without notifying or getting permission from a guardian.
The email went on to suggest that Colorado parents “should be aiming to remove their kids from public education.”
The Colorado GOP resorted to transphobic language in their opposition to the bill. “The bill, sponsored by four far-left progressives, two of who do not know their own gender and do not have children, requires teachers to use ‘pronouns’ for kids with gender confusion…”
The lawmakers in question, Brianna Titone and Stephanie Vigil, are two openly queer people (Titone being Colorado’s first openly trans elected official and Vigil being nonbinary).
The stance the Colorado GOP has taken intertwines the right wing cultural crusade against anything queer with the school choice movement which has galvanized some conservative voters in the past.
The email in question was written by Darcy Schoening, who previously was a leader in the El Paso County chapter of Moms for Liberty. Moms for Liberty has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.
Schoening went on to refer to trans identities as a “fetish,” claiming that: “If your child decides he identifies as a girl because he is angry with you, or all of his friends are doing it, the Colorado government will actively encourage his new fetish … allowing him to identify as ‘she,’ ‘they’, or whatever nonsensical terms your son’s teachers and peers … dream up.”
It’s worth noting that the Colorado GOP has lost a significant amount of political power in the state. Having been faced with a string of losses at increasingly wider margins in both state and local races, one would think that the Colorado GOP would try to moderate their stances on social issues to appeal to younger voters. It appears Colorado republicans would rather resort to transphobic and homophobic dog-whistling to desperately cling to the conservative extremists.
While Colorado does not have any big senate or gubernatorial races this November, it’s important to remember that there are plenty of races at the local level that can have a measurable impact on the lives of LGBTQ+ Coloradans.
