GOP bill would regulate what teams transgender student-athletes can play on in Colorado

Two gender-related bills, including Republican-sponsored legislation that would regulate what teams transgender student-athletes can play on, were introduced in the Democratic-controlled Colorado legislature this week.

The sponsors of the Women’s Rights in Athletics bill, HB23-1098, said it was a measure designed to be compassionate, but LGBTQ advocacy groups immediately decried it as discriminatory and part of a nationwide effort to introduce anti-transgender legislation.

The second piece of legislation, the Amenities for all Genders in Public Buildings bill, HB23-1057, is sponsored by Democrats and would require newly constructed or renovated public buildings to make non-gendered restrooms available.

The athletics bill, sponsored by Rep. Lisa Frizell, R-Castle Rock, Rep. Brandi Bradley, R-Littleton, and Sen. Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, would require any intercollegiate, interscholastic, intramural or club athletic team to only allow transgender athletes to play on sports teams with people of the gender they were assigned at birth.

This means trans women would not be allowed to play on a women’s sports team and trans men couldn’t play with men.

The bill would prohibit the government from investigating a complaint or taking any adverse action against a public school, school district, activities association, higher education institution, employee or governing board member for complying with the bill.

Reps. Frazell and Bradley said the bill was proactive — they could not, when asked, name an instance in Colorado where transgender athletes posed a problem.

“We must be compassionate toward these young people who have found themselves born male and identifying as female and the difficulty that this causes them,” Frazell said. “We have got to be compassionate and figure out a way that we can include trans women without hurting biologically born women. This bill is simply the beginning of that conversation.”

Bradley said it’s important to protect Colorado’s women and make sure they’re safe.

“A number of our constituents are worried about our daughters playing against males that were biologically identified as males at birth,” Bradley said. “It’s about fairness. We all know differences of muscle capacities, lung capacities, things that are different between girls and boys.”

Gillian Ford, communications director for LGBTQ advocacy organization One Colorado, released a statement saying One Colorado was strongly opposed to the anti-transgender bill.

“Transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive youth and young adults play sports for the same reason others do: to gain a sense of belonging, and take care of both their physical and mental health,” One Colorado executive director Nadine Bridges said in a statement.

“HB23-1098 discriminates against trans, nonbinary and gender-expansive people in Colorado,” Bridges said. “Let’s be clear: this bill is not about protecting youth or setting a fair playing ground for women to participate in sports. This bill joins the larger wave of anti-transgender legislation sweeping the nation in an attempt to gain political points by attacking our most vulnerable populations. We are appalled by any effort to harm our community instead of working to ensure all Coloradans are protected and can thrive.”

The Amenities for all Genders in Public Buildings bill is sponsored by Rep. Karen McCormick, D-Boulder, Rep. Stephanie Vigil, D-El Paso County, and Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, D-Boulder County.

The bill would require all newly constructed public buildings and each public building wholly or partly owned by the state, county or local municipality where restroom renovations are expected to cost $10,000 or more to:

• Provide a non-gendered restroom facility or multi-stall non-gendered facility on each floor where restrooms exist
• Make sure all single-stall bathrooms are not designated for exclusive use by any specific gender
• Allow for the use of multi-stall restrooms by any gender if certain facility features are met under the 2021 International Plumbing Code
• Provide at least one safe, sanitary and convenient baby diaper changing station accessible to the public on each floor where there is a public restroom in each gender-specific restroom, non-gendered multi-stall restroom and non-gendered single-stall restroom

McCormick said she is sponsoring the bill because, as the mother to a transgender non-binary person, McCormick has experienced difficulties in finding a bathroom her child can use.

“When you have to go, you have to go, and having this unseen barrier that many people don’t see was important for me to shine a light on and say we are all used to using non-gendered bathrooms in our homes and all used to using non-gendered bathrooms in restaurants where they just have one bathroom,” McCormick said. “It shouldn’t be a very difficult concept for people to realize that having more non-gendered or all-accessible restrooms in more places is not a huge leap.”

The bill is also advocating for fathers and non-binary parents to have more access to diaper-changing stations.

“I also had a young dad and constituent approach me about how frustrated he was with his infant and not consistently finding diaper changing stations in men’s rooms,” McCormick said. “This is a gender equity issue for the guys. The fact we’re defaulting to the mom figure to always do this job, it’s not fair to the moms, dads or kids.”

Both bills were in the early stages and had not gone through any committees. The restroom bill is scheduled for the State, Civic, Military and Veteran Affairs Committee on Monday. The transgender athlete bill does not yet have a date scheduled for its first committee hearing.

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