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No parent should ever be forced to enable harm to their child. It’s a primal instinct—to shield, to nurture, to guide our kids through life’s storms. Yet, Colorado is charging toward a law that turns this instinct upside down, branding it abusive for parents to question their child’s desire to “change their gender.” This isn’t a minor policy tweak; it’s a full-frontal assault on parental rights, propped up by the flimsy facade of “gender-affirming care”—a practice I see as abuse cloaked in compassion.

The legislation at the heart of this, HB25-1312, cleared the Colorado House in early 2025 and is winding through the Senate as of April. Its supporters pitch it as a shield for transgender individuals, but peel back the rhetoric, and the real target emerges: parents who refuse to bow to an ideology that rushes kids into irreversible choices. The bill’s text is unambiguous—using a child’s birth name or biological pronouns (“deadnaming” or “misgendering”) can now be deemed “coercive control,” a legal synonym for abuse. Refuse to endorse your child’s wish to transition? That stance could tip the scales against you in a custody fight. Stand firm in your beliefs, and you might lose your kid entirely.

The implications are chilling. “Gender-affirming care” sounds warm and fuzzy—until you unpack it. Puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, even surgeries—are dangled before children too young to vote, drive, or fathom the lifelong fallout. Decades of research, including studies showing 80% or more of kids with gender dysphoria reconcile with their biological sex after puberty, suggest caution, not haste. Yet Colorado’s bill brooks no such nuance. It demands affirmation over investigation, punishing parents who opt for patience instead of pills. To me, flooding a child’s body with experimental drugs or carving it up isn’t care—it’s harm, pure and simple.

This law doesn’t protect kids; it strong-arms parents into compliance. Picture a 12-year-old, swayed by TikTok trends or peer pressure, declaring they’re transgender. One parent urges, “Let’s slow down, talk it out, see a counselor.” The other races to a clinic for hormones. Under HB25-1312, the cautious parent could be tagged as abusive, their voice silenced in court. That’s not safeguarding children—it’s coercion masquerading as enlightenment.

Parental rights aren’t about dominance—they’re about duty. We know our kids intimately: their fears, their joys, their blind spots. We’re their first line of defense, not some judge or activist armed with a checklist. This bill obliterates that bond, imposing a rigid, ideologically driven script that trumps evidence and erases individual context. It’s a slippery slope—today, it’s gender identity; tomorrow, what else will the state dictate about our children?

Advocates of “gender-affirming care” tout it as a cure-all, but it’s a high-stakes roll of the dice with kids’ bodies and futures. Puberty blockers aren’t candy—they can stunt bone growth and fertility. Hormones and surgeries leave permanent marks. Why should parents be forced to play along—or risk losing custody for daring to dissent? Colorado’s law isn’t about safety; it’s about control, plain and simple.

This isn’t progress—it’s a betrayal of the people most entrusted to protect our children. Parents aren’t the enemy here; they’re the ones fighting to keep their kids whole. Colorado needs to hear it loud and clear: stop this overreach. Our rights—and our children’s well-being—depend on it.

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Tiffany Justice is the co-founder of Moms For Liberty and a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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