Colorado’s Catholic bishops have issued a direct appeal to the faithful to help place three citizen-led measures on the 2026 statewide ballot, calling them necessary correctives to recent state laws that erode parental rights, conscience protections, and the safety of children.
The initiatives are:
Each will require roughly 125,000 valid signatures within six months of their early-September kickoff to qualify for the ballot.
In a letter released Aug. 21, the bishops explained the measures “must be enacted to protect Colorado families and children” from recent legislation that the Catholic leaders described as openly hostile to parental rights and religious freedom.
The bishops pointed specifically to two bills signed this spring that gave more legal backing to the concept of “gender identity” and forced public and private insurers to cover “medically necessary” so-called “gender-affirming” procedures, including on children.
Explaining the need for Initiative 108, the bishops highlighted that trafficking “violates the sanctity, dignity, and fundamental rights of the human person” and argued that stiffer penalties would align the law with the gravity of the crime. The new penalties would also serve as a needed deterrent in a state that recently ranked among the top ten for sex-trafficking reports, the bishops argued.
Initiative 109 would require school sports to be designated either as of one of the two sexes or as co-ed, aligning participation with the truth of human sexuality and reinstating clear boundaries around girls’ and women’s sports. The bishops stated that the measure would affirm the “unique and immutable biological differences” between men and women while preserving fairness, privacy, and safety for female athletes.
Policies that disregard sex “deny human dignity” and create “unsafe and unjust situations” for children, the bishops explained.
Initiative 110, framed by the bishops as the “Protect Children from Irreversible Sex Change Surgery Act,” would prohibit medical providers from performing or prescribing interventions intended to alter a minor’s sex. The initiative would also end current state funding for such interventions.
Minors lack the maturity to make “permanent, life-altering medical decisions,” the bishops wrote, warning of “severe, irreversible consequences” of so-called “gender-affirming” procedures and drugs, including sterility. The bishops grounded their argument in Catholic teaching on the unity of body and soul – and the inviolable dignity of the human person.
Brittany Vessely, executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, told CatholicVote that “Colorado has become the national epicenter for battles over sanctity of life, religious liberty, and family policy.”
“Each of the parental rights initiatives sponsored by Protect Kids Colorado and endorsed by the Colorado bishops is a common sense measure that over 60 percent of Coloradans support,” Vessely said.
“Our faith teaches, and Natural Law dictates, that parents have primary responsibility for their children,” she added, “and state overreach in parental decisions is a gross violation of God-given parental rights.”
Urgent call to action
CatholicVote President Kelsey Reinhardt, a Colorado resident, seconded the bishops’ call for Catholics to help put these measures on the ballot.
“We pray the Creed every Sunday, we believe in the revealed truths of the Scripture that God made man male and female and created us with equal dignity,” Reinhardt said. “How many times we, as Catholics, have asked ourselves in frustration, ‘What can I possibly do?’ when we read real horror stories about human trafficking or the mutilation of young kids, while the authority of their parents are being ignored or directly opposed.”
“We cannot surrender the safety of our daughters and granddaughters, the rights of parents, or find ourselves unwilling to act in the new abolitionist movement against human slavery,” Reinhardt continued. “This is the time to act and the call is simple: offer 30 minutes of your time in a line after Mass on Sunday to sign the petition. For the heroic, offer to be trained on how to circulate a petition. If just 1000 persons volunteered to get 40 signatures each, these important initiatives to protect our children will be on the ballot in 2026.”
For their part, the bishops wrote that they “implore the Catholic faithful to act in accordance with Church teaching” by signing and helping gather signatures so the people of Colorado can vote on the issues. Parish collection weekends are set for Sept. 13-14 (the weekend of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross), Oct. 4-5 (the weekend of the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi), and Nov. 1-2 (the feasts of All Saints and All Souls).
Catholic faithful willing to volunteer for the effort can sign up at the link provided by the Colorado Catholic Conference.
The legislation that prompted the bishops’ call to action
The bishops link these initiatives to a broader defense of parental authority and First Amendment freedoms in the wake of recent disturbing legislation.
HB25-1312 (the “Kelly Loving Act”) essentially “codifies discrimination against any faith-based or private institution or individual” who rejects progressive ideological beliefs about human sexuality – forcing conformity via Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act.
HB25-1309, now law, requires insurers to cover surgical interventions on minors suffering from gender dysphoria. The bishops contend that this forces objecting Coloradans and faith-based institutions to subsidize practices that violate conscience
According to the bishops, the two laws, taken together, transform dissent from gender ideology into legally actionable “discrimination,” imposing legal and financial risks on families, educators, ministries, and clinicians.
Their letter added that, during the 2025 session, over 1,090 Coloradans traveled to the Capitol to oppose HB25-1312, but many could not testify due to time limits.