COLORADO — A Colorado bill named after one of the victims of the Club Q shooting aims to strengthen protections for transgender people across the state.
If passed, the Kelly Loving Act would add misgendering and deadnaming as acts of discrimination under Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act and prohibit the acts in public places.
The bill defines "misgender" as purposefully referring to someone using a different pronoun with the intent to disregard their gender identity. "Deadname," according to the bill, means purposefully using someone's birth name rather than their chosen name with the intent to disregard their gender identity.
The proposed legislation also says courts shall consider a parent deadnaming or misgendering their child as coercive control during child custody hearings. The bill said courts shall consider reports of coercive control when determining parenting time.
Kelly Loving was a transgender woman who was shot and killed when a gunman opened fire inside Club Q, an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs, in Nov. 2022. Tiffany Loving, Kelly's sister, said from an early age, she knew Kelly was different.
"It's not like she just decided one day that she wanted to be gay or she wanted to be trans. This, this is from when she was a child," said Tiffany.
Tiffany said all Kelly wanted to be wa normal. She said her sibling was often bullied at school and did not always have a great experience in the workplace.
"Every time the bell rang, she would come running to me, crying because somebody was picking on her," said Tiffany. "Kelly had a hard time getting a job or being able to keep a job because she would be at work, people would come in looking and laughing."
Tiffany said the Kelly Loving Act is important to strengthen protections for transgender people and, if passed, would take a step toward more acceptance for people like Kelly.
"All they want to do is be normal, like everybody else," said Tiffany.
State Representative Jarvis Caldwell, a Republican who represents El Paso County, voted against the bill. He said state law should not tell parents how to navigate their child wanting to go by a different name or different pronouns.
"I don't see it as protecting because I think what it's doing is you're affirming a mental health crisis of a child," said Rep. Caldwell. "The parent who maybe wants to try to get them a different kind of help, maybe through a counselor, or through church or something else, that parent is considered doing coercive control, which in the law is defined as child abuse. So, they're saying you are abusing your child by not affirming the child's gender confusion."
Rep. Caldwell said parents should not be punished for disagreeing with a certain ideology.
The bill passed the Colorado House on April 6 and now heads to the Colorado Senate.
___
A family in Colorado City says illegal dumping near their home is becoming a safety issue
One official told News5 the trash piles could be infested with rats or other dangerous factors, so they are waiting to work with the health department to remove trash from the area.
____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
