Colorado Democrats killed two child protection bills in House committees during February. Colorado voters responded by gathering over half a million signatures to bypass the legislature entirely.
Protect Kids Colorado submitted the petitions to the Secretary of State on February 20. The organization collected roughly 170,000 signatures for each of three ballot initiatives mirroring legislation Rep. Scott Bottoms introduced.
HB26-1082 died first. The House Judiciary Committee voted 7-4 on February 10 to kill the “Children Are Not for Sale Act.” The bill would have made human trafficking of minors a class 1 felony requiring life imprisonment without parole.
Eight days later, HB26-1087 died in House Health & Human Services. That bill prohibited gender-affirming surgeries, hormones, and puberty blockers for minors. Violations would have been a class 5 felony with mandatory license revocation.
HB26-1083 faces its first hearing on March 10 in the same committee. The “Protect Women’s and Girls’ Sports Act” requires schools to designate teams as male, female, or co-ed based on biological sex.
“How unfortunate that Colorado House Democrats unilaterally refuse to protect children from sex trafficking, males in girls’ private spaces and irreversible sex-rejecting surgeries,” said Erin Lee, Protect Kids Colorado’s executive director. Twenty-seven states passed similar protections through their legislatures.
The grassroots response mobilized 3,300 petition circulators across all 64 counties. More than 1,900 notaries participated. Hundreds of churches hosted signing events, including mandatory signing weekends organized by Catholic parishes.
Former Senator Kevin Lundberg leads the effort. Mark “Oz” Geist, a Benghazi veteran, and Jennifer Sey, world-class gymnast and XX-XY Athletics CEO, head the three initiatives.
Lee described the coalition as nonpartisan. “We are grateful that some county GOP offices did support us, and it’s unfortunate that Democrats did not support We the People’s effort to protect kids,” she said.
The campaign operated entirely on small-donor funding. Professional petition firm Taylor Petition Management joined volunteer efforts in the final weeks to meet the deadline.
Critics claim Colorado hospitals do not perform gender-affirming surgeries on minors. The Stop the Harm Database contradicts that assertion using insurance claims data. It ranks Children’s Hospital Colorado tenth nationally for gender-affirming procedures on minors and tracks over 60 Colorado hospitals billing for such care.
“As 27 states have shut down this barbaric child abuse, doctors who seek to continue this harm on kids are fleeing to Colorado for our legal protections,” Lee said. “If one child who is unable to consent to this irreversible damage undergoes a medically unnecessary double-mastectomy, that is one child too many.”
Both Children’s Hospital Colorado and Denver Health suspended gender-affirming care for minors in January 2026 under federal pressure. Both hospitals claim they never performed surgeries on patients under 18. Attorney General Phil Weiser filed multiple lawsuits defending hospital access to provide such care.
Lee addressed civil rights concerns directly. “No one has a right to buy or sell a child for sex,” she said. “No one has a right to physically harm a child with irreversible and medically unnecessary sterilization and mutilation.”
Large crowds testified in support of all three bills at legislative hearings. Democrats voted them down anyway. “The overwhelming turnout of citizen support and subsequent party-line votes against them have proven that our Democrat legislators do not listen to the will of the people,” Lee said.
The Secretary of State has 30 days to verify signatures. Each measure needs 124,238 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Lee said the organization has legal representation ready for signature curing and challenges.
If voters approve all three measures, they become state statute on January 1, 2027. The legislature can amend or repeal them as with any statute.
This represents the largest signature-gathering effort on transgender-related issues in Colorado history. Lee’s previous attempts to place similar measures on the 2024 ballot failed to qualify.
“We are confident in the people of Colorado’s ability to understand these simple measures and vote to protect children,” Lee said.
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