Colorado To Christian Parents: Surrender Your Faith Or Surrender Your Children

First, they targeted a baker. Now, they’re targeting parents.

Colorado’s anti-Christian trajectory became apparent in 2012, when Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips declined to create a wedding cake celebrating a same-sex ceremony. During a hearing on the case by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a commissioner said Phillips can believe “what he wants to believe” but cannot act on his religious beliefs “if he decides to do business in the state.” Now, 13 years later, Colorado lawmakers have shifted their sights from businesses to the family.

House Bill 25-1312—the deceptively named “Kelly Loving Act”—has cleared the Colorado House and advances to the Senate with minimal national attention. Yet its implications are staggering. Under this legislation, simply using your child’s birth name or biologically accurate pronouns could be legally classified as “coercive control,” potentially resulting in the loss of custody rights.

The message Colorado is sending is unmistakable: Surrender your biblical convictions or surrender your children.

Crime of ‘Misgendering’

The Kelly Loving Act operates through a subtle but powerful legal mechanism. By classifying “deadnaming” (using a child’s birth name) and “misgendering” (using pronouns that align with biological sex) as forms of “coercive control,” the bill places these speech acts in the same category as threatening or intimidating behaviors that courts consider when determining child custody.

The message Colorado is sending is unmistakable: Surrender your biblical convictions or surrender your children.

Many Coloradans may not realize how this legislation creates a two-tiered legal system. Parents who hold to the traditional Christian understanding of gender could face intervention by the state without any evidence of actual abuse or neglect. All that’s necessary is evidence that they didn’t verbally affirm their child’s self-declared gender identity.

Even more concerning is the bill’s interstate implications. It explicitly prohibits Colorado courts from enforcing laws from other states that would remove a child from a parent who provides “gender-affirming care.” This effectively transforms Colorado into a legal sanctuary where one parent could pursue the medicalization of a child against the other parent’s wishes.

Colorado’s bill effectively criminalizes biblical parenting while creating a legal sanctuary for those seeking to circumvent other states’ protective measures.

What makes Colorado’s approach uniquely concerning is its use of family courts rather than criminal courts. Most parents lack the financial resources to fight prolonged custody battles, making compliance with state-mandated language and medical decisions the path of least resistance—regardless of personal convictions.

Missing Medical Context

Conspicuously absent from discussions around the Kelly Loving Act is the rapidly evolving medical consensus on gender dysphoria treatments. As Colin Wright notes in analysis for City Journal, “No good evidence exists suggesting that ‘gender-affirming’ treatments—social transition, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, surgeries—are grounded in rigorous, evidence-based medicine.” In fact, “every systematic review conducted to date has concluded that the evidence supporting these interventions is of very low quality” (emphasis original).

While proponents of the bill frame gender-affirming care as settled science, they also fail to mention the significant policy reversals occurring across Europe. Sweden, Finland, and England—hardly bastions of religious conservatism—have all dramatically restricted medical transitions for minors after systematic reviews revealed poor evidence quality. The United Kingdom’s Cass Review, published in April 2024 after a comprehensive four-year investigation, concluded that “social transition is not a neutral act” and that there’s “no good evidence” for the benefits of puberty blockers.

Yet under the Kelly Loving Act, a Colorado parent who references these medical developments when deciding against immediate affirmation could be deemed unfit for custody.

How Should Christians Respond?

Scripture teaches us that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12, NIV). The Kelly Loving Act exemplifies this reality.

At its core, this legislation attacks the biblical understanding that humans are created male and female in God’s image (Gen. 1:27). It seeks to replace parental authority—established by God—with state authority that enforces a worldview fundamentally at odds with Christian anthropology.

How should faithful Christians respond? First, with urgent prayer and political engagement. Colorado believers can contact their state senators and Governor Polis’s office, expressing their concerns in clear, respectful terms.

Second, churches must prepare for the pastoral challenges ahead. Congregations should develop support networks for families who may face legal challenges, including arrangements for legal counsel and financial assistance.

Third, Christian parents must engage in intentional discipleship that prepares their children to understand and embrace biblical truth about gender and identity. In a culture that increasingly presents Christian teaching as harmful, children need deep roots in Scripture and the confidence that comes from understanding God’s good design.

Christian parents must engage in intentional discipleship that prepares their children to understand and embrace biblical truth about gender and identity.

Finally, Christians must recognize that threats to religious liberty and parental rights are more frequently coming from the state, rather than the federal, government. This shift requires believers to be vigilant and engaged at the local level, building relationships with state legislators and participating in community discussions about proposed legislation.

As policies affecting faith and family are increasingly determined by state capitals, Christians must be prepared to advocate effectively through state-level coalitions, understand the nuances of their state constitutions, and develop state-specific legal and political strategies that protect both religious freedom and the God-ordained authority of parents to raise their children according to biblical principles.

Stand Firm for Truth

The Kelly Loving Act represents more than concerning legislation—it embodies a fundamental worldview conflict over the nature of reality itself. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to stand firmly in defense of biblical truth while extending compassion to those suffering from gender confusion.

In Colorado, as in other areas of our country, Christian families face difficult days ahead. Yet we proceed with confidence, knowing that the same God who created us male and female continues to reign in our day of gender confusion. No legislation can change the truth of who we are as image-bearers of God, fearfully and wonderfully made according to his perfect design.

As the pressure intensifies, may Colorado’s Christians be found faithful—speaking truth in love, defending the vulnerable, and pointing to the One who offers true identity and lasting hope.