One Colorado wants state lawmakers to know that their constituents include LGBT people and that members of the LGBT community vote.

Monday was One Colorado lobby day at the Capitol. Almost 300 volunteers from the organization, representing 33 Senate districts and 57 House districts, walked the halls, watched floor debate and met with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

“The reason we do this is so representatives and senators know (we’re) paying attention,” said Laura “Pinky” Reinsch, One Colorado’s spokeswoman. “We talk to everyone. What we saw last year on the gay-conversion therapy bill and the (transgender) birth certificate bill is that those bills passed out of the House with bipartisan support. None of our issues fall along partisan lines.”

Reinsch said the organization was talking specifically on lobby day about two bills. One is HB 1185, sponsored by Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, and Sen. Jessie Ulibarri, D-Westminster. The bill would streamline what they see as an arcane and outdated system through which transgender Coloradans apply to make their birth certificates reflect their chosen gender. The other is HB 1210, sponsored by Denver lawmakers Rep. Paul Rosenthal and Sen. Pat Steadman. The bill would ban so-called gay conversion therapy.

Both bills are retreads of bills that failed to gain traction last year in the Republican controlled Senate. Moreno’s bill passed on second reading in the House Monday.

Reinsch said members of the group spoke with Senate President Bill Cadman’s office about at least allowing both bills to reach the chamber floor for a vote. She pointed to lawmakers like Rep. Lois Landgraf, a Republican from Fountain who changed her views on LGBT issues and voted in support of the birth certificate bill in 2015.

During a meeting with One Colorado volunteers, Reps. Beth McCann, D-Denver, and Daneya Esgar, D-Pueblo, talked about the power that comes from showing up as a group at the Capitol and pressing lawmakers to articulate their positions.

“It helps us when we’re make our arguments to see that there’s many citizens who are impacted by the bills that we do. It’s really important for us to hear from you and your personal stories,” said McCann.

Esgar said she thought the presence of the One Colorado group may have sidelined outspoken Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt, R-Colorado Springs, an Internet preacher who takes a hard line against the expansion of LGBT rights. Esgar said she believed Klingenschmitt didn’t get up to speak during second reading of Moreno’s birth certificate bill because of the presence of members of the LGBT community at the Capitol.

“During committee hearings, Rep. Klingenschmitt certainly had a lot of things to say,” Esgar said. “Today on the floor of the House, we kind of made a decision that we weren’t really going to get up and fight for the bill if we didn’t have to.”

And, it turned out, they didn’t have to.

— ramsey@coloradostatesman.com