State-run youth council in Colorado pushes penalties for incorrect pronoun usage encouraged by Democrat lawmakers

A state-run youth council in Colorado is pushing a series of legislative bills to push gender ideology.

One of the bills would allow persons to be charged with “discrimination” for using the incorrect preferred pronoun of a transgendered person, said Fox News.

The bill would also require schools to change the names of transgender students, without informing parents of the sexual identity change, according to Fox.

The bills are being pushed by the Colorado Youth Advisory Council (COYAC), made up of students ages 14 to 19, who research policy ideas and then recommend them to elected representatives, according to Colorado Newsline. 

But the impetus behind the bills is the obsession of Colorado progressives in government to push bills regarding race and sexual identity, one Colorado legislator told The Lion.  

“The Democrats in the Colorado Legislature are obsessed with race and sexual identity and therefore consider every policy matter through those filters,” Sen. Mark Baisley, R-District 4, told The Lion.  

Rep. Stephanie Vigil, D-District 16, Sen. Janice Marchman, D-District 15, and Sen. Faith Winter, D-District 25, have already been selected as co-sponsors of the proposed gender legislation, said Colorado Newsline.  

“This says that young people care about being empowered. They care about being affirmed,” Emmett Blaney, the Rocky Mountain policy coordinator for the political advocacy group Young Invincibles, told Newsline. “Us young people, we’ve been saying this from Day One. There’s a lot of research that shows that social support is the most impactful thing to reducing suicide rates.” 

Young Invincibles (YI) was founded by Ari Matsuiak, a former special assistant to then-president Barack Obama. 

YI has worked on defunding police, supporting critical race theory and Black Lives Matters in schools, and the expansion of Medicaid. 

In addition to the pronoun bill, COYAC wants money to study the state of gender change medical treatment in Colorado. 

One COYAC member was outraged that he had to wait three years, from age 15 to 18, to begin transgender therapy in the state.  

“You need a blood test and a psych evaluation. My doctor didn’t know how to care for me, and that being the cause for me not receiving care that I needed for three years was detrimental to my mental health,” he told Newsline.  

But Baisley warns that schools and teachers, already faced with challenges created by the crisis in education made more apparent by the pandemic, are becoming overburdened by gender identity questions. 

“Our teachers face the enormous challenge of preparing their students with the science, technology, engineering, math and communications skills to thrive in their careers as adults,” Baisley told The Lion. “Setting these trendy social traps for teachers is cruel and onerous.”  

Concerns over gender identity and race also take up resources in schools that many experts say would be better used helping all students achieve better results overall.  

“For example, when one of our colleges recently requested funding to upgrade their campus WiFi, the discussion awkwardly devolved into the racial percentage breakdown of the students who would benefit from better internet access. Of course, every student would benefit regardless of their race,” Baisley told The Lion.  

The Colorado Legislature will meet again in January, when they are expected to consider and pass these bills, as the Democrats control both the state House and the state Senate.