On May 19, 2025, Defending Education (DE), Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm, and Dr. Travis Morrell sued several Colorado state officials under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the federal law that lets people sue state officials for violating their constitutional rights. The lawsuit claims Colorado’s HB 25-1312 violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. As the Supreme Court said in West Virginia v. Barnette, “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
Over strong opposition from many Coloradans, the state adopted HB 25-1312, which promotes the idea that sex is not fixed at birth. Section 8 of the law changes the definition of “gender expression,” a protected category under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, to include a “chosen name” and other words by which a person “chooses to be addressed.” As a result:
- It is now a “discriminatory practice” in a place of public accommodation to call someone who identifies as transgender by their birth name or to use pronouns that match their biological sex.
- It is also a “discriminatory practice” to “publish,” “display,” “circulate,” or “mail” any material suggesting a person is “unwelcome, objectionable, unacceptable, or undesirable” because of “gender expression,” which now includes using a birth name or biological pronouns.
- The only exceptions to using a chosen name are when it “contain[s] offensive language” or is requested “for frivolous purposes.” There is no exception at all for pronouns.
All of the plaintiffs believe sex is fixed at birth and oppose spreading gender ideology among Colorado’s young people. They want to speak according to that belief and do not want to be forced, through pronouns, names, or other language, to affirm that a biological man is a woman or the reverse. The suit argues that this law the First Amendment, both on its face and as applied, and is so vague it violates the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs are suing to protect their own rights, their members’ rights, and the rights of every Coloradan who does not want to be punished for sharing their views on sex and gender.
Read the complaint below:
