Colorado Democrats introduced a bill that would require the state’s public and charter schools to socially transition students who believe they are transgender or nonbinary by using their “preferred names.”
HB24-1039, also called Non-Legal Name Changes, would require schools to use a student’s preferred name “in school, during extracurricular activities, and on rosters, attendance lists, yearbooks, student identification cards, and any other unofficial school recording requested by the student without requiring the student to obtain a court-ordered name or gender change or to change the student’s official records.”
The bill would further deem a school’s refusal to use a student’s preferred name as “discriminatory.”
The legislation would mandate the creation of a task force that would analyze:
- Guidelines for communication plans for a student who does not go by the student’s preferred name in the student’s home
- Procedures related to parental notification
- A process for updating unofficial school records with a student’s preferred name
- Any other topic that the task force believes is necessary to adequately provide guidance and recommendations
The task force would submit a report before February 1, 2025, and it would be published and submitted to each school district. By July 1, 2025, every school would be required to implement the policy recommendations according to the bill’s text.
The main sponsors of the bill are Sens. Janice Marchman and Faith Winter and Rep. Stephanie Vigil, El Paso County’s first openly “queer” elected official.
The bill would be the first in the country to enshrine social transitions at school “and has a strong chance of passing given that Colorado Democrats hold a supermajority in the legislature,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“California, which has led the way on pushing gender ideology in classrooms, has published guidance for districts to let kids change their names and sex markers on unofficial documents,” according to the report. “However, it does not have the force of law and two teachers in the state successfully challenged their district’s orders that they adopt their students’ new gender identities without telling their parents.”
Schools socially transitioning sex-confused students is a growing trend across the country, as 1,058 districts and 18,587 schools have transgender/gender nonconforming policies that “openly state that district personnel can or should keep a student’s transgender status hidden from parents,” according to a tracker kept by Parents Defending Education.
The bill’s sponsors are expected to introduce a pared-down version, and a hearing is being held on Thursday.
“Our bill clarifies that all Colorado students have the right to have their ‘chosen name’ used as a protection of their first amendment [sic] rights,” Marchman told the outlet in an email.
Critics warn that the bill would usurp parental rights and allow schools to hide social transitions from parents.
“We are not talking about nicknames here! This is your government telling you that they are in control of your child,” the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network said in a post to X on Wednesday.
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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