Teenagers from the Colorado Youth Advisory Council want to make Colorado a more supportive state for transgender youth. 

The council presented six policy recommendations to state legislators on Wednesday, two of which targeted issues facing young members of the transgender community. Three of the recommendations will eventually be sent to the Colorado General Assembly for legislators to consider as state policy. 

The laws could mean life or death for young transgender Coloradans, the teenagers argued, detailing first- and second-hand accounts of transgender youth struggling with suicidal ideations due to issues they say have policy solutions. 

“I don’t want anyone to have to lay awake at night worrying that they won’t see their trans friends the next day,” said Leigh Schmidt, an 18-year-old from Lakewood. “Helping to take away one barrier … will help immensely.” 

The first policy recommendation would allow 12- to 17-year-olds to change their names in public schools, providing a non-legal switch from a birth name to a preferred name on documents, such as attendance sheets and transcripts. 

This process is already available in some school districts, including in Weld County and Boulder County, according to the proposal. But the recommendation seeks the development of statewide guidelines to standardize the process across all public schools. Parental approval would only be required if the name change would appear on external documents that can be viewed by the parent.

“Students above the age of 12 are able to make decisions for their own privacy in Colorado,” said Meghan Taylor, 16 of Cascade. “They are able to go to a therapist without consulting their parents. Students should, therefore, be able to change their names on rosters to be read out in their classes.” 

Taylor said using a transgender student’s birth name can out them as transgender to their peers, and cause humiliation and trauma for the student.

Last year, more than 50% of transgender and non-binary youth across the country seriously considered suicide, according to a state-by-state report from The Trevor Project. But those who live in environments where their preferred names and pronouns are respected are half as likely to attempt suicide, according to research out of Texas and Minnesota. 

The second policy recommendation would aim to increase transgender youths’ access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy. 

The proposal calls for the creation of a grant program to provide training to family planning clinics, federally qualified health centers and rural health care clinics in these two gender-affirming care practices. It also suggests a task force to study the status of gender-affirming care available to youth in Colorado.

Mason Evans, a transgender man, said he sought gender-affirming care at 15 years old, but couldn’t find any health care provider to help him until he turned 18.

“I was struggling to live every day because I lived in a world that did not see me for me,” said Evans, 18 of Pueblo. “It would be three years before I began receiving gender-affirming care and in those three years my mental health suffered. … This care is essential and it needs to be expanded statewide.”

Gender-affirming care includes social, psychological or medical interventions for transgender individuals, such as hormone therapy and surgical procedures. 

This proposal comes as Colorado is becoming a hub for gender-affirming care. Earlier this year, state legislators passed a bill shielding patients and providers of gender-affirming services in Colorado from penalties from other states. 

This, in addition to laws in other states restricting gender-affirming care, has led to rapidly increasing demand for care throughout Colorado and excessively long waitlists, said Dr. Anna-Lisa Munson, a general pediatrician and adolescent medicine physician at Denver, in the proposal.

Other policy recommendations presented on Wednesday included providing free take-home hygiene products to students, expanding the teaching of Asian American history in schools, offering student debt forgiveness for school psychologists, and researching gun violence prevention in schools. 

Legislators did not comment on the proposals during the meeting. 

The Colorado Youth Advisory Council will solidify the six recommendations and send them to legislative staff to be drafted into bills during the next meeting on Aug. 17. In October, they will select three of the bills to be referred to the General Assembly for consideration.