A bill on lowering the age of consent for child therapy from 15 to 12 stirred unusual passion and emotion on the House floor Tuesday.

Normally by this stage of a legislative session, with the May 10 end in sight, the passion for all but a few bills is dimming, as even true believers start to think like fans of losing baseball teams, “Maybe next year.”

Freshman Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D-Commerce City, isn’t letting go of House Bill 1320. Though it passed on a voice vote Tuesday and is like to pass on a roll call this week, it has dang-near unsurmountable odds in the Senate.

The calendar isn’t the problem. Republicans in the Colorado legislature, as a group, take a dim view of getting between parents and their children.

The goal of the bill is to provide a responsible avenue for troubled young people who might be afraid or embarrassed to talk to their parents or let them know they’re getting help.

“Sometimes the world can be a scary place for a young person,” Michaelson Jenet told the House.

To try to get it passed, she amended the bill from 10 years old to 12. She said the bill would remove barriers for a child to get help, and she choked up talking about the prevalence of suicides in children and teens.

“If we do not provide that for all children, the child most at need won’t have access,” Michaelson Jenet said.

Rep. Stephen Humphrey, R-Severance, said there had to be a way to get children help without the state interfering in a relationship between a parent and child, however.

He questioned why parents would not be notified if their child is visiting a licensed professional.

“It comes off as the parents are the problem, and it undermines the parent’s authority in that relationship,” Humphrey said.

Rep. Kim Ransom, R-Littleton, said dentists can’t clean children’s teeth without parental consent.

“Yet we’re going to let these children go speak to a mental health professional about their future, about everything, without the parents even knowing,” she questioned.

Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, said it’s hard for a parent to accept that their child can’t talk to them about their problems.

“As a parent of two children, yeah, that’s a really tough call,” he said. “But, you know what, I’m going to let them make that call, if they can’t come to me.

“Because that’s loving your kids.”