Four days after it was enacted, Colorado’s new law seeking to prevent the misgendering and deadnaming of transgender people is already facing a legal challenge from anti-trans groups that say its provisions violate their First Amendment rights.
Four groups and a Colorado physician filed the lawsuit in Denver’s federal court Monday. The suit seeks to invalidate House Bill 1312, which the legislature passed earlier this month and Gov. Jared Polis signed Friday. The groups are asking a judge to rule that an underlying part of the state’s anti-discrimination law — prohibiting people from publishing statements that make specific groups of people feel unwelcome — is unconstitutional.
The plaintiffs — Defending Education, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, Do No Harm and dermatologist Travis Morrell — argue the law will unconstitutionally block them from using transgender people’s previous names and pronouns. The lawsuit specifically lists a transgender state legislator whom the advocacy network wants to continue describing by an incorrect name without fear of litigation or financial penalties.
The suit alleges that the law “punishes Coloradans for their speech” and places “a thumb on the scale to favor one side of a contentious public debate.”
Among other protections for transgender people, HB-1312 expands the state’s antidiscrimination law to include provisions related to using a person’s chosen name and referring to them how they wish. It was named after Kelly Loving, a transgender woman killed in the Club Q mass shooting in Colorado Springs.
The lawsuit was filed against officials from the Colorado Civil Rights Division, which investigates alleged violations of the state’s anti-discrimination law, as well as against Attorney General Phil Weiser. It was filed by Virginia law firm Consovoy McCarthy, an increasingly prominent conservative firm best known for winning a U.S. Supreme Court case that struck down race-based college admission policies.
Weiser spokesman Lawrence Pacheco declined to comment on the pending litigation Tuesday.
The suit in part leans upon another Colorado-based Supreme Court case: the 303 Creative decision, in which the court determined that a Colorado designer could refuse to create a wedding website for a same-sex couple under the First Amendment.
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