Christ Medicus Foundation director urges Colorado voters to reject ‘political attacks on families’

Christ Medicus Foundation Executive Director Louis Brown urged Colorado voters to support three statewide ballot measures on the Nov. 3 ballot, arguing that their passage would be a first step toward reversing what he described as state officials’ “unconstitutional political attacks on families.”

In a Nov. 1 statement shared with Zeale News, Brown endorsed Propositions 133, 134, and 135, which he said would “protect kids, protect families, and uphold parental rights.” 

Proposition 133 would require life without parole for child sex trafficking, including buying sexual activity with minors; Proposition 134 would ensure girls do not have to compete against male athletes in school and collegiate sports; and Proposition 135 would ban gender “transition” surgeries for minors.

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Brown argued that passing these three ballot measures would “send a resounding message that Colorado citizens will not allow gender ideology, human trafficking, and social Marxism to devour our children.” 

The state’s four Catholic bishops have also endorsed the propositions, calling on voters in a joint Sept. 18 statement to vote “yes” on the measures to defend the dignity and safety of children and the rights of parents, as Zeale News previously reported.

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Brown said the measures are “just a first step,” noting that people of faith must “continue vigorously opposing immoral ideologies and bad state government policies while offering an alternative vision for Colorado” that is rooted in love, truth, human dignity, and the common good. 

Brown pointed to several legal disputes and recently enacted laws as examples of what he considers a pattern of hostility toward religious freedom, saying Colorado’s government is targeting families, children, and religious businesses. 

“The state’s political attack on these constituencies is egregious because the targets — families, children, and faith-based efforts to build up local communities — are the foundation of civil society in Colorado,” he said.

He pointed to the case of Colorado baker Jack Phillips, whose refusal to create a cake for a same-sex “wedding” led to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in his favor in 2018. In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the court held that the commission had failed to consider Phillips’ religious objection with the neutrality required by the First Amendment.

Brown also cited Chiles v. Salazar, a challenge to Colorado’s 2019 law that banned licensed therapists from engaging in any counseling that “attempts to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” while permitting counseling that supports gender “transition.” 

In its March 31 decision, the high court held that the law, as applied to Christian counselor Kaley Chiles’ talk therapy, regulated speech based on viewpoint. The justices sent the case back for further proceedings under a more demanding First Amendment standard.

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But Brown said that just months after the court released its decision, Colorado’s legislature “attempted an end run around the Supreme Court” by passing HB 26-1322, which allows people to sue licensed mental health professionals over alleged injuries from counseling aimed at changing sexual orientation or gender “identity.” 

Lastly, he pointed to HB 26-1141, which he said threatens free speech and religious freedom in public education by coercing public school teachers and students “to conform to leftwing views on marriage, family formation, sexuality, and abortion.” 

“Unless you conform to a socially Marxist view of society that prefers atheism, gender ideology, and abortion, and unless you are okay with replacing the judgment of parents with the judgment of the secular state, you are not wanted, supported, or protected in Colorado,” Brown said. “This is the reality.”

He urged Coloradans to pray that people will reject these ideologies and to educate friends and family about the three ballot initiatives. 

Looking beyond the election, Brown said families, churches, and nonprofit organizations must help people understand and defend their parental rights, free speech rights, and religious freedom and offer a new vision for the state that protects the “God-given dignity of every person and the economic and social needs of all.”