Did the powers that be learn nothing from the 2018 Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission Supreme Court decision? How about Trinity Lutheran v. Comer (2017) or Carson v. Makin (2022)? Each decision makes it very clear the state cannot discriminate against faith-based providers of goods and services.
Apparently, the lesson was lost on Colorado politicians and bureaucrats who are determined to force people of faith to choose between exercising their religion and serving their clients in the Colorado marketplace.
In February of this year, the Colorado Department of Early Childhood adopted new regulations forcing summer camps to allow biological boys to dress, shower, and room with girls and vice versa, if the camper identifies as a different sex. Camp IdRaHaJe, a 77-year-old camp in Bailey, named after the old song, “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” separates campers by biological sex for bathing, dressing, and sleeping and therefore cannot obey the new rule. After the camp’s administrators asked for an exemption and were denied, they filed suit.
IdRaHaJe is likely to prevail on First Amendment grounds. The government cannot impose its ideological preference about gender without violating the free exercise of religion of those whose creed deems biological sex a meaningful distinction.
The state is also discriminating against Colorado families. There are dozens of day and overnight camps of which only a small minority are faith-based.
Families who believe that gender identity is separate from biological sex and are seeking a camp that will affirm their child’s alternate identity, and families who do not mind if their children share bathrooms and cabins or tents with children of the opposite sex have many options.
Those who consider biological sex an important distinction for maintaining privacy, safety, and religious conviction deserve the same freedom to choose a camp. Rather than waste another dime of taxpayer money defending discrimination against faith-based providers, the state should change its regulations to comply with the First Amendment.
Likewise, politicians need to review the above-mentioned Supreme Court decisions. In 2019, the General Assembly passed a bill censoring the speech of counselors who discuss gender identity. As with the new camp regulations, the law privileges the state’s ideology through coercion. These lawmakers believe that gender is separate from biological sex and is changeable. They consider the only correct response to a child’s discomfort with his or her biological sex is to affirm a desire to change gender. Any attempt by a counselor to help a client under the age of 18 accept his or her biological sex could result in the suspension or revocation of the counselor’s license.
Recently, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case brought by Kaley Chiles, a Colorado licensed professional counselor whose freedom of speech and freedom of religion are being violated by this law. Counselors who want to uphold their religious convictions about biological sex are not the only ones impacted by this discriminatory law. Children and teens seeking counseling to help overcome discomfort regarding their biological sex so they can accept their bodies cannot get the help they want and need.
Even the speech of secular counselors is impacted should they deviate from the Colorado government’s preferences in doing what they think is best for their clients. Two recent scientific reviews performed by the British National Health Service and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found little scientific support for the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgery for youth with gender confusion.
In fact, such interventions put children and teens at greater risk of cancer, heart problems, metabolic disorders, sterility, and impacted neurocognitive development and psychiatric disorders. Any counselor who even warns patients or their families about the side effects of such interventions risks punishment from the state.
The Supreme Court will ultimately uphold the First Amendment rights of providers and their clients. In the meantime, however, these discriminatory government edicts will continue to violate Coloradans’ rights of free speech and free exercise of religion, and adversely impact the privacy, safety, professional conduct, and even health of those who disagree with the government’s ideology.
Krista Kafer is a Sunday columnist for The Denver Post.
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