Colorado Bishops Call for Urgent Support of Parental Rights Initiatives to Safeguard Families

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The four bishops of Colorado, through the Colorado Catholic Conference, have issued a letter to the faithful encouraging them to sign and support three initiatives seeking a place on the 2026 Colorado Ballot. Additionally, they have asked Catholic parishes in Colorado to host three signature collection weekends over the next three months. Their letter is printed in full below.

As Catholic bishops of Colorado, we support and encourage signature collection for Colorado initiatives #108 Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor, #109 Male and Female Participation in School Sports and #110 Prohibit Certain Surgeries on Minors. These initiatives each require nearly 125,000 valid signatures within six months of their kick-off in early September to be placed on the 2026 Colorado ballot.

In order to reach this goal, we, the bishops of Colorado, announce three signature collection weekends for all Catholic parishes in our state and encourage Colorado registered voters to sign these petitions. Additionally, Catholic faithful willing to volunteer for this effort should sign up at this link: https://protectkidscolorado.app.neoncrm.com/forms/catholic-parish-volunteers.

The designated parish signature collection weekends will be:

• September 13-14, the weekend of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

• October 4-5, the weekend of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of Colorado

• November 1-2, the weekend of All Saints and All Souls Feast Days

These initiatives must be enacted to protect Colorado families and children, especially as extreme laws violating parental rights continue to be advanced in our state. During the 2025 Colorado legislative session, over 1090 Coloradans came to the state capitol to advocate against HB25-1312 Legal Protections for Transgender Individuals. Still, committee leadership limited testimony, effectively silencing more than half of the attendees who came to voice their serious concerns about the bill. Enacted on May 16, the new law codifies discrimination against any faith-based or private institution or individual with a different belief about human sexuality and forces them to conform to government-mandated beliefs about “sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression” and avoid “misgendering” or “deadnaming” (using biological pronouns and birth name) intentionally under threat of criminal and financial penalties based on the revised Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA).[1] The impact on Colorado’s anti-discrimination law is a massive violation of First Amendment freedoms of speech and conscience, particularly for parental rights. HB25-1312's House version even aimed to make a parent's position on their child's trans-identity a factor in custody decisions. Due to public backlash, that provision was removed from the proposed law, but the nation remains attentive to Colorado parents' fight against state overreach.

Furthermore, HB25-1312’s sister bill, HB25-1309 Protect Access to Gender-Affirming Healthcare, lists a host of expensive treatments and procedures that are required to be covered by public and private health insurance providers if they are deemed “medically necessary” by a physical or behavioral health provider. Under the law, these treatments and surgeries can be performed on minors as young as 12 years old and include hormone therapy, genital reconstruction, breast augmentation and facial reconstruction. Requiring large employer insurance plans, individual or small group plans, state-funded plans and private health insurance providers to cover these medical interventions violates the First Amendment conscience rights of faith-based institutions, private businesses and every Coloradan who disagrees with the state definition of “gender-affirming care,” forcing them to subsidize it — including for minors.

The 2026 proposed citizen-led initiatives will empower Coloradans to secure their parental rights, protect their children and defend their First Amendment rights of conscience and expression.

Here is what these initiatives do:

#108 Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor

Initiative #108 strengthens laws against the sex trafficking of children, including changing the crime from a class 2 felony to a class 1 felony with a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole or release. Human trafficking violates the sanctity, dignity and fundamental rights of the human person. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation's "Global Estimate of Modern Slavery" (2016), 25 percent of all sex trafficking victims are children age 17 or younger, which is about 10 million girls and boys worldwide. As of 2023, Colorado is ranked 10^th in the nation for highest sex trafficking reports.[2] Colorado is home to both Interstate 70 and Interstate 25 and children are often trafficked along those routes. It is imperative that Coloradans strengthen laws that reject the modern slavery of sex trafficking of children.

#109 Male and Female Participation in School Sports

Initiative #109 affirms the “unique and immutable biological differences” between men and women from birth and that those differences become more pronounced as children age and reach puberty. Initiative #109, therefore, requires all interscholastic and intermural athletic programs to be expressly designated based on biological sex as either for men, women, or coeducational (co-ed). School and athletic organization policies that undermine the biological reality of a person’s body as male or female deny human dignity and are abusive to minors. Policies that allow biological men to participate in women’s sports promote the unfair treatment of women and pose potentially dangerous and inappropriate situations for young women, including sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with biological men. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was a needed landmark to establish equal educational opportunities for women. Initiative #109 keeps in continuity with Title IX, is important for the equal dignity of men and women and addresses the unfair competition and potential safety concerns for minors when biological sex is disregarded.

#110 Prohibit Certain Surgeries on Minors

Initiative #110 includes the “Protect Children from Irreversible Sex Change Surgery Act,” which recognizes that minors lack the maturity to make “permanent, life-altering medical decisions” and that medical interventions and surgery intended to alter a child’s biological sex often result in severe, irreversible consequences and even sterility.[3] Initiative #110 also prohibits medical providers from knowingly performing, prescribing, or administering a medical intervention or surgery on a minor with the intent to alter their biological sex and prohibits state funding from being used for such medical interventions or surgeries. According to Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity (2024), “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.”[4] The Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes that “the human body shares in the dignity of ‘the image of God’” (CCC 364), including the body’s unique biological sex. The fundamental order of the human person is the unity of body and soul and attempts to alter biological sex are contrary to God’s divine plan for that person. This is why the Church emphasizes the need to respect the natural order of the human person, especially of children whose physical and mental well-being will be seriously harmed by permanent and life-altering medical interventions and surgeries. Furthermore, according to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body” (March 2023), gender reassignment interventions are not licit and violate the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD) for Catholic Health Care Services.[5]

As Catholic bishops of Colorado, we implore the Catholic faithful to act in accordance with Church teaching in support of these three initiatives. If you are registered to vote in Colorado, please sign the petitions and, if you are able, participate in signature collection to ensure these important citizen-led initiatives are placed on the 2026 Colorado ballot. If you are not registered to vote, you may sign up here: https://cocatholic.org/resources/voter-guide/.

May we, as a community of faith, take this important stand for the dignity of the human person, the protection of children and the religious liberty of all.

In Christ,

Most Reverend Samuel J. Aquila

Archbishop of Denver

Most Reverend Jorge H. Rodriguez

Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

Most Reverend Stephen J. Berg

Bishop of Pueblo

Most Reverend James R. Golka

Bishop of Colorado Springs

End Notes

[1] In 2021, HB21-1108 redefined Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) to include “sexual orientation,” “gender identity,” and “gender expression” as protected classes. CADA’s definition of “place of public accommodation” excludes “a church, synagogue, mosque, or other place principally used for religious purposes.” The scope of this religious exemption is uncertain. Furthermore, HB21-1108 provides no protections for private individuals to practice their well-founded convictions on human sexuality in the public sphere. This violates federal precedent, including the 2017 US Supreme Court case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. HB21-1108 gave authority to the same Colorado Civil Rights Commission that lost in Masterpiece to decide and enforce how “religious expression” and “worship” are applied for religious institutions and private citizens. This is why CADA is considered to codify discrimination against anyone with a different belief about human sexuality.

[2] DJ Summers, “Human Trafficking in Colorado,” Common Sense Institute, 02 October 2024. https://www.commonsenseinstituteus.org/colorado/research/crime-and-public-safety/human-trafficking-in-colorado-2023-new-record-year-for-trafficking-crimes.

[3] The Mayo clinic found that male adolescents and teenagers placed on puberty blockers will have significant testicular atrophy leading to loss of fertility (Murugesh V, Ritting M, Salem S, Aalam SMM, Garcia J, Chattha AJ, et al. Puberty Blocker and Aging Impact on Testicular Cell States and Function. 2024). A National Institute of Health study failed to show benefit from puberty blockers for 95 children after a two-year follow-up (Dr. Joanna Olson-Kennedy). Surgical intervention is completely irreversible, which is even more significant for children whose healthy body parts are mutilated, leaving them sterile for life.

[4] Declaration of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith “Dignitas Infinita” on Human Dignity, 04 August 2024, https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2024/04/08/240408c.html.

[5] According to the USCCB’s “Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body” (March 2023) for the Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD) of Catholic Health Care Services, “Catholic health care services must not perform interventions, whether surgical or chemical, that aim to transform the sexual characteristics of a human body into those of the opposite sex or take part in the development of such procedures.”