Reject Colorado’s HB25-1312 (“Kelly Loving Act”)
Bottom Line Up Front: The Kelly Loving Act (HB25-1312) is a dangerous and unconstitutional overreach that violates parental rights, coerces speech, and seeks to redefine reality by force of law. It treats loving parental guidance as abuse, faith as bigotry, and conscience as a punishable offense. By criminalizing dissent and compelling speech, this Act tramples the sacred bond between parent and child and undermines both moral truth and biological reality.
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We categorically reject any scheme that punishes parents for affirming truth or forces them to betray their beliefs. Children are not wards of the state, and their identity is not subject to ideological decree. As stewards of our children and guardians of liberty, we stand firmly on the foundation of both natural rights and God-given authority—truths enshrined in Scripture and affirmed in our Declaration of Independence.
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Our policy is clear: protect families, defend conscience, uphold the freedom to speak what is true, and repeal HB25-1312 without compromise. In its place, we will restore laws that honor the Constitution, biological fact, and the rightful role of parents as the first and final authority in their children's lives.
a. Moral Principle: Our convictions stem from the biblical and natural-law view that human life and identity are sacred gifts from God. We believe all children are created in the image of God and born with an immutable biological reality. Scripture declares that “children are a heritage from the LORD” (Psalm 127:3, NKJV) entrusted to loving parents, and that God made each person “male and female” (Genesis 1:27, NKJV). In keeping with this divine order, parents have the God‑given authority and duty to train and guide their children (Proverbs 22:6; Eph. 6:4). We affirm as Thomas Jefferson wrote that “Almighty God…created the mind free. All attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens… are a departure from the plan of the holy Author of our religion” In other words, no government may coerce conscience or truth. We stand against any legal scheme that would redefine a child’s identity by force or law. As Jesus taught, “you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32, NKJV) – freedom rooted in objective fact, not compelled speech.
1. Sanctity of Life and Biological Truth: We hold that every human life is precious “from conception to natural death.” God created the biological sexes for His purposes, and no law can alter the natural fact that humans are “as the God of nature formed us” (William Blackstone) We reject any ideology that denies reality or coerces families to betray creation. Forcing a child to affirm a contrary self‑identity is a form of deception.
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2. Parental Rights and Family Sovereignty: In divine and natural law, parents are the caretakers of their children’s body and soul. Scripture commands fathers and mothers to raise children in God’s truth (Eph. 6:4; Prov. 22:6). The Kelly Loving Act’s attempt to label normal parental guidance (like using a child’s legal name or pronouns) as “coercive control” is a profound moral injustice. It dishonors the family and usurps the tender parental role by treating disagreement as abuse. We heed Jefferson’s pledge to hostile resistance against any “tyranny over the mind of man”. Parental conscience – informed by faith and reason – must not be overridden by government.
3. Freedom of Conscience and Speech: Our faith and founding principles teach that truth cannot be enforced by force. Every individual is endowed with free conscience and speech, as part of being made in God’s image. “No official…can prescribe what shall be orthodox in…religion, or other matters of opinion”. Simply put, the state has no moral right to force Christians, parents, or educators to proclaim words they believe to be false. We stand for honest, open debate about identity and sexuality; “above all liberties,” Milton wrote, is the liberty to know and speak truth.
b. Constitutional Landscape
1. Free Speech & Conscience (First Amendment): Our Constitution protects Americans from forced ideological conformity. In West Virginia v. Barnette, the Supreme Court held that “no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in…other matters of opinion”. Requiring a person to use specific names or pronouns is compelled speech, strictly forbidden under the First Amendment. Like Barnette, this Act would drive dissenting parents and citizens “to self‑determination in matters that touch individual opinion and personal attitude”. By threat of losing custody or facing civil penalties for honest speech, HB25-1312 plainly violates free speech.
2. Parental Rights & Due Process (Fourteenth Amendment): The Fourteenth Amendment secures a fundamental liberty interest for natural parents. In Troxel v. Granville, the Court reaffirmed that parents have a “fundamental right to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children”. This right is protected unless there is actual harm or neglect, not mere disagreement. HB25-1312 inverts this principle by treating speech disagreements as presumptive abuse. Its text forces courts to consider simple misnaming or misgendering – without proof of harm – as “coercive control” in custody cases. In effect, a fit parent who declines ideological speech is penalized with the same weight as a child abuser. This novel legal theory has no support in our tradition; it fails even the most basic due process tests by removing any harm threshold. Furthermore, the Act commands Colorado courts to disregard other states’ lawful custody orders on these grounds, eviscerating judicial comity and the rule of law. In sum, HB25-1312 strips parents of weighty constitutional protections.
3. Equal Protection & Natural Rights: By singling out only certain viewpoints, the Act creates unconstitutional classification by ideology. It protects those who affirm a preferred gender identity while punishing others for holding a contrary, biological view. The law’s anti-discrimination language (barring “deadnaming” and “misgendering”) extends these penalties even to public accommodations and publications. This compels everyone from small businesses to journalists to adopt a government-favored ideology or face legal jeopardy. Such viewpoint-based regulation is subject to strict scrutiny (as courts have confirmed when punishing refusal to use pronouns). It amounts to a state-backed orthodoxy of gender ideology. This clashes with the Declaration’s promise (praised by our Founders) that we are all “created equal” and “endowed…with certain unalienable Rights”, including the right to our honest beliefs. In short, HB25-1312 violates the Constitution by compelling speech, penalizing conscience, and rewriting humanity apart from the facts that God and nature gave us.
c. Policy Commitments
1. Repeal and Replacement: We will work vigorously to repeal HB25-1312 in the next legislative session and oppose any similar measures. Elected representatives must remove any coercive pronoun or naming mandates from law. In their place, we will champion a clear Parents’ Bill of Rights in Colorado: affirming that parents (not government or courts) have the primary authority over their children’s upbringing, including education, healthcare, and moral instruction.
2. Legal Defense of Families: We commit to supporting affected families in seeking court relief. Our legal strategy will be to enjoin any enforcement of coercive-speech provisions as unconstitutional. If any parent is threatened with custody loss or penalty merely for using a child’s true name or beliefs, we will back a court challenge on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds. We will also rally constitutional litigators to defend any clergy, educators, or journalists sued under this law for expressing traditional views on gender.
3. Educational and School Policy: We will fight to keep gender ideology out of schools and require transparency with parents. Specifically, we oppose policies like California’s AB 1955 (which allows schools to withhold a child’s gender-identity from parents). In Colorado, we will advocate that schools promptly inform parents of any student’s pronoun change or treatment, ensuring that teachers cannot reassign names or pronouns in secrecy. We will protect teachers’ rights to teach biology and protect students from social-transition procedures without parental consent.
4. Promotion of Truth and Family: As a cultural campaign, we will promote education and programs that uphold truth and the family. This includes public awareness initiatives (through churches, community forums, and media) emphasizing that “the truth shall set us free” (Jn. 8:32) and highlighting the joy of raising children in a loving, biblical environment. We will support faith-based family counseling, parenting workshops, and family-focused events that strengthen parental bonds. Our message will celebrate responsible fatherhood and motherhood as taught in Scripture, defending the home as the primary school of virtue.
5. Free Speech and Religious Liberty: Consistent with our moral and constitutional principles, we will defend free speech across society. We will oppose any attempt to forbid traditional viewpoints about sex and gender, or to penalize churches and businesses for upholding their beliefs. We intend to work with national civil‑liberties organizations to file amicus briefs if needed, citing Jefferson’s maxim that “eternal hostility” to ideological tyranny is our heritage. Public campaigns will highlight cases like Meriwether v. Hartop and Barnette to educate citizens that viewpoint discrimination has no place in a free society.
6. Protecting Children from True Harm: We unequivocally condemn genuine child abuse in all its forms. We will ensure child welfare authorities focus only on actual neglect or physical and sexual abuse, not on innocent speech conflicts. Training for social workers will emphasize that refusal to affirm a student’s chosen identity, absent any abuse or medical neglect, is not “coercive control.” We pledge to defend children’s well-being by advocating medical ethics: opposing experimental puberty blockers or irreversible surgeries on minors.
7. Coalition Building and Public Support: We will collaborate with churches, nonprofits, and like-minded states to promote legislation and culture that protect family. By partnering with Utah, other conservative states, and national coalitions, we will share best practices on “parents’ rights” bills and resist federal overreach into child‑rearing. We will also encourage civic engagement: training volunteers to speak at school boards, write op-eds, and vote for family-centered candidates. In every forum, we will argue that true compassion for children honors reality and empowers parents, not an ideology that would “subject our children to confusion and coercion,” as critics have warned.​