House Democrats and Democratic candidates for the House are outraged over a robocall created by Republican state Rep. Stephen Humphrey of Ault that targets Democratic Rep. Brianna Titone of Arvada, claiming her “radical sexual agenda” would harm “your wives and daughters.”

Titone is Colorado’s first transgender lawmaker.

Titone is running for her second term in House District 27 against Republican Vicki Pyne, whom Titone defeated with a razor-thin margin of 439 votes out of 49,475 cast. The district also saw the fourth highest turnout among state legislative races in 2018, at 73.93%.

Republicans have made HD27 among their top targets, along with HD25, also in Jefferson County, where Democratic Rep. Lisa Cutter of Littleton became the first Democrat to win the seat in state history two years ago, and HD47 in southeastern Colorado, where Democratic Rep. Bri Buentello is facing off against Republican Stephanie Luck.

But Democrats are upset about the comments made by Humphrey in the robocall. Colorado Politics heard a recording of the call and can verify that Humphrey identified himself as a state representative who says Titone’s policies leave him “deeply concerned about protecting my family.”

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In the 48-second robocall, Humphrey claims Titone has supported policies that would force “your wives and daughters to share bathrooms with biological men who identify as female,” as well as taxpayer-funded sex change operations for children.

The CFV Victory Fund, which is run by Humphrey, reported on Oct. 23 it had spent $127 on the robocalls. The IEC also spent $4,607 on a mailer, also attacking Titone for her “anti-family and anti-Christian” policies. None of the attacks have ever targeted the House legislation Titone has sponsored. Humphrey lists his occupation as a therapist and marriage counselor but his state license for an “unlicensed psychotherapist” expired in 2015.

The House Majority Project addressed a letter “to whom it may concern,” stating they were sickened by the call. “This robocall is nothing more than transphobic garbage that propagates debunked and dangerous myths and creates more hatred and animosity toward those just trying to live their authentic lives.”

In the letter, the Majority Project pointed out that Titone’s legislation in her two years has focused on legislation such as insurance, food banks and tax credits for affordable housing, all bills with bipartisan support. The one bill she sponsored on LGBTQ issues was Senate Bill 20-221, which prohibited use of the gay panic defense in criminal cases. The bill passed 63-1, and Humphrey was one of the 63 who voted for it.

Titone told Colorado Politics in a January, 2019 interview that her interests include water and the environment, and that sponsoring LGBTQ legislation wasn’t among her priorities. “I don’t want to be polarizing or a one-trick pony,” she said.

In his eighth year in the House — Humphrey is term-limited — he has sponsored numerous unsuccessful bill that would allow discrimination against LGBTQ individuals in adoption and marriage. Out of the 22 bills he’s sponsored in the last four years, only one actually made it out of a House committee and was signed into law by the governor, on civil forfeiture. The rest have mostly been anti-LGBTQ, anti-abortion or pro-gun rights.

The Majority Project letter said “if you want to know exactly how Rep .Humphrey feels about the LGBTQ community,” listen to a House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee hearing on Feb. 13, 2020, in which he presented a bill to ban LGBTQ marriage and adoption. Humphrey presented “an incoherent ramble of deeply ideological nonsense,” the letter said.

Titone said she has never spoken to Humphrey, nor would he even look her in the eye. ”I tried to be friendly, but the more I got to know him the less I tried,” because she knew what kind of bills he sponsored.

Humphrey and Republican state Rep. Lori Saine of Dacono also have refused to use appropriate pronouns when speaking about Titone. 

The robocall is not the only attack ad targeting Titone for her gender, the letter stated. Take Back Colorado, an independent expenditure committee controlled by Joe Neville, brother of House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, put up an attack ad in early October on Facebook that is still running. That ad said Titone “has always supported violence” and then launched into an attack on her gender.

While Titone sent out a fundraising email after the Facebook ads began running, she has asked that in lieu of the robocall that people donate to PFLAG of Greeley. House District 48, which Humphrey represents, borders Greeley.

The CFV Victory Fund has so far raised $6,000, with $2,000 from Robert Blackwell, president and CEO of Independent Propane of Pine Junction and Granby; and $1,000 from Benjamin Gates of Wellington, president of NG Companies, which provides services in the oil and natural gas industry. The IEC’s only other target: Republican Rep. Colin Larson of Littleton, who defeated Neville ally and former state Rep. Justin Everett in the June primary.

While attack ads are nothing new — the Democratic IEC Leading Colorado Forward has spent more than $1 million attacking Suzanne Staiert in the run for SD27 in Centennial — for lawmakers to attack each other during the election season is a little unusual.

Seth Masket, a political scientist, director of the Center on American Politics and professor at the University of Denver, said the robocall strikes him as unusual and “outside the normal campaign activity in Colorado. Politicians here will criticize their opponents, but rarely use their colleagues as punching bags,” he said. “This crosses the line.”

The majority project letter is signed by 40 of the House’s 41 Democrats and 10 Democrats running for the House in November.

Neither Humphrey nor Pyne returned requests for comment.

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This article has been updated with a transcript of the robocall.