Name-change bills advance after debate and anti-transgender rhetoric
Two bills allowing transgender and nonbinary Coloradans to more easily use their preferred names cleared the House on Friday after anti-transgender rhetoric from Republican lawmakers spread debate and votes over multiple days.
The two Democratbacked measures — HB241071 and HB24-1039 — have led to hours of tense debate in the House over the past week, and both had lengthy committee hearings before hitting the floor. HB24-1071 would make it easier for people convicted of crimes to change their names to fit their gender identity, subject to court approval. HB24-1039 would allow students to use their preferred names and would make it discrimination to intentionally use the wrong names.
The House passed the bills on an initial voice vote last week. The first attempt to pass them out of the chamber sputtered Monday, after the name change bill’s sponsor, Rep. Lorena Garcia, attempted to change the bill’s name to honor the transgender woman who inspired it. That sparked hours of debate that included allegations about the woman’s criminal history, with one Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Leslie Herod, noting that two Republican lawmakers had acknowledged their own prior arrests at a recent congressional debate.
The attempt to rename the bill failed on a bipartisan vote, though several Democratic legislators were absent from the floor. House leadership then punted the bills until Friday and publicly floated bringing legislators back this weekend if the bills weren’t settled.
Debate over the measures, which were considered in succession, was distinct in some ways: Republicans argued the name-change bill would allow people convicted of felonies to duck broader public awareness of their histories (such people have long been able to pursue name changes with court oversight) and that parents were being left out of the bill to let students identify by their gender-affirming name.
“I know that there’s people out there that are going to demonize their kids and work them over for things like this,” said Rep. Ty Winter, a Trinidad Republican and the House’s assistant minority leader. “But to me (the students’ naming bill) takes away the right, the ability for someone like myself who wants to help their children. That (help) isn’t a bad thing.”
Democrats countered that a criminal conviction shouldn’t restrict a person’s ability to self-identify and that, while parents could be notified by their kids of their desired name, some students were afraid of their parents’ reaction to their identity.