Colorado Will Have The Opportunity To Ban ‘Trans’ Child Genital Mutilation

The citizens of Colorado will have the opportunity to stop the “transgender” child mutilation allowed by their Democrat political leadership once and for all in November, as an initiative to do just that has made it on the ballot.

The citizen-led Initiative 110 from Protect Kids Colorado (PKC), which bans the procedure for anyone 17 years old or younger, was officially qualified for the ballot by the Colorado Secretary of State’s office earlier this month. That comes after PKC had two other initiatives officially qualify as well.

Initiative 108 would set a penalty for life in prison without parole for anyone who buys or sells a child for sex. Initiative 109 would require schools and athletic associations to designate sports teams as male, female, or co-educational, so as to keep male athletes out of female sports.

“This would not have been done without the people of Colorado. Colorado is the state to watch,” Lori Gimelshteyn, PKC Board Director and Executive Director of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (CPAN), told The Federalist. “For so long, doors have slammed in our faces — [people saying] ‘Colorado’s a lost cause. Colorado’s a blue state’ — Colorado is not a blue state at all. Colorado has a radically blue legislature and radically blue boards and commissions across the state, but the people of Colorado — Coloradans — genuinely see these initiatives as about protecting children. It’s not political, it’s not left or right: it is right or wrong.”

Right now, taxpayer funds are being used to pay for child mutilation procedures, but Initiative 110 would stop that from happening as well.

The Colorado legislature also passed a “state-enabled kidnapping” bill that would give child custody to the parent who will “affirm” the “transgender” identification of their child by way of medical intervention, effectively locking out the parent who would try to save them from that, as The Federalist reported.

There have already been multiple instances of this happening to children when their parents go through divorce, as The Federalist reported, and while Initiative 110 would not deal with that issue directly, it would do much to save children from the irreversible medications and surgeries their parents are pushing on them in order to win custody in the first place.

“This moment is deeply personal for me and for so many families across Colorado. My own daughter was socially transitioned without our knowledge in Poudre School District, which led our family to share our story through the documentary Art Club,” Protect Kids Colorado Executive Director and Initiative 110 Chair Erin Lee said in a press release. “What we experienced is not isolated, and families deserve transparency, truth, and protection when it comes to their children.”

Gimelshteyn said a fairly strong opposition is already building against the three initiatives, with some groups falsely claiming that the initiative would prevent infant circumcision, for example, even though the initiative clearly states that it “does not include circumcision.”

“‘Altering biological sex characteristics’ means treatment in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender,” it states. “It does not include treatment for persons born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development or treatment for acquired physical or chemical abnormalities. ‘Altering biological sex characteristics’ does not include male circumcision.”

“When you read the language, it’s very easy to understand,” Gimelshteyn said. “And it’s very important for people that are voting on this, that they genuinely understand that this is strictly for prohibiting gender reassignment surgery.”

Some opponents, including in the left-wing local media like NBC 9 Denver anchor Kyle Clark, have erroneously claimed that it is “evangelical Christians” who are placing “anti-trans measures on the November ballot.”

Gimelshteyn said that the coalition, which collected more than enough signatures to make the ballots, is full of a wide variety of people, many of whom aren’t even religious at all, but can clearly see that mutilating children is harmful, as numerous studies have shown.

The grassroots effort to secure enough valid signatures garnered over 170,000 for 108 and 109, as well as about 165,000 on 110, in just six months. Gimelshteyn said that the signature validity rate was 91 percent on all initiatives, which she called “historic.”

She also said that the average cost to get an initiative on the ballot is about $2 million, but that they spent just under $200,000.

The underlying issues for all three initiatives poll very well in Colorado. The anti-sex trafficking initiative has 85 percent support versus just 8 percent in opposition. The initiative that would prevent males from participating in female sports has 63 precent support and 22 percent opposition. And the initiative banning child “transgender” mutilation has 59 percent support and 28 percent opposition, according to polling shared with The Federalist.

Those polls were taken in 2025, but Gimelshteyn said, “Since then, we’ve seen a noticeable cultural and political shift on these issues.”

“Based on ongoing engagement, grassroots feedback, and trends in more recent polling in similar states, we believe these numbers have only strengthened,” she added. “As voters continue to learn more about what these initiatives actually do, we anticipate continued alignment and growing support heading into November.”

With the hurdle of official qualification surpassed, Gimelshteyn said now they can move their focus to growing their volunteer network looking toward November.

“It’s given people in Colorado a huge boost in morale. It just seems so dark a lot of times when we’re seeing laws that are being signed by Governor Polis that fundamentally undermine a parent’s sacred role to direct their child’s upbringing, education, and care,” she said. “This is an opportunity where people could actually do something.”

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.