Colorado approves trio of measures protecting children and sports

In an election where Democrats advanced around the country, Colorado voters approved three ballot measures that show their values are not in complete alignment with that party’s policy agenda. The trio of changes to state law involve requiring life in prison without parole for sex trafficking of minors, keeping male athletes out of girls’ sports, and banning sex-rejecting surgeries for minors. 

CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt celebrated the results of the ballot initiatives in a statement provided to Zeale News. 

“Thank God for this tremendous, hard-fought, beautiful victory for the children of Colorado. Nobody expected this in the deep blue state of Colorado,” Reinhardt said. “I am so proud of Colorado’s Catholics who were relentless. With the strong backing of all four of Colorado’s bishops, they went parish by parish gathering signatures to get these propositions on the ballot after CatholicVote paid for and mailed ballot circulars to every parish in the state.”

She added that the campaign reached every Catholic in Colorado to get the propositions on the ballot and that hundreds of Catholic volunteers wrote 20,000 personal postcards to their fellow Catholic voters, one by one.

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All three ballot measures were supported by Protect Kids Colorado, whose chairman Kevin Lundberg, said in a Nov. 4 statement, “For years, Colorado families asked their elected representatives to take these concerns seriously, only to see legislation repeatedly rejected at the Capitol. Yesterday, Coloradans spoke for themselves. … Protecting children is not a partisan cause.”

The results are somewhat surprising given that Colorado elected a new delegation for Congress that is entirely Democrat, including Democratic Socialist Melat Kirios. The only exception to the Democrat sweep was incumbent Republican Jeff Hurd, who won reelection by just over 6,000 votes. 

The latest results for the ballot questions were updated by Colorado’s Secretary of State Office on Nov. 10.

Proposition 133, which was approved 62.12% to 37.88%, expands the crime of sex trafficking a minor to include knowingly trading anything of monetary value to buy or sell sexual activity with a minor, and sets the penalty at life in prison without parole or release.

Proposition 134, passed with 52.2% of the vote and requires K-12 and collegiate teams to be designated as male, female, or coed and limits participation based on biological sex characteristics.

Another hot-button issue put before voters was Proposition 135, which bars healthcare professionals from knowingly performing surgery on a minor to change their gender appearance and prohibits the use of state or federal funds, Medicaid, or insurance coverage for those procedures. The latest numbers for Proposition 135 show 51.93% of the electorate approving it and 47.83% voting against it. 

“Now those who traffic children for sex will go to prison for life, and they will never be free to rape another child,” Reinhardt said. “Children will no longer be mutilated by irreversible surgeries before their frontal lobes are even fully developed, before they are old enough to understand what is being done to them. And our daughters will finally have the privacy and the fair shot they deserve on the field, on the court, and in the locker room.”

The fundraising battle was a study in contrasts. Families Not Politics, the committee opposing Propositions 134 and 135, raised $3.7 million as of Oct. 28, state campaign finance records show. That figure is about eight times the $445,000 raised by Protect Kids Colorado. 

Opponents of Propositions 134 and 135 included the coalition Families Not Politics, which includes One Colorado, Rocky Mountain Equality, and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. The ACLU of Colorado and the Colorado Democratic Party also opposed Proposition 135. Similar sports measures aimed at protecting kids’ sports were on the ballot in Washington, Arizona, and Nebraska, and passed in all three states. 

“This was never about left or right. It was about right and wrong. Protecting children is not a partisan cause. It is the most basic duty we have,” Reinhardt said. “To Protect Kids Colorado, to our bishops, and to every priest, petition carrier, postcard writer, and voter who poured their heart into this fight: Thank you. You did something extraordinary. Colorado’s kids are safer now because of you.”

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