Who will stand up for children in crisis against a legislature running wild?

The Colfax Avenue Democrat Chorus has proposed, in one unified voice, an assault on parental rights, free speech and the operation of public schools in a wild-eyed, zealous effort to prevent challenges to the perceived rights of children struggling with gender issues. In their view, a child’s choice of new pronouns trumps any reasonable objections — including those from medical experts about science that is, at best, unsettled. 

House Bill 1312 threatens child custody for parents who use a child’s given name at birth (“deadnaming”) or decline to use a child’s preferred pronouns (“misgendering”). Such conduct, in a custody battle, would be included in legal criteria for “coercive control” of children — a list that currently includes physical abuse. 

That’s not all, as state Board of Education member Kristi Burton Brown points out in a clear and dispassionate analysis of the legislation. 

The bill adds “deadnaming” and “misgendering” to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, which could be used to penalize individuals or businesses (including, one assumes, religious organizations) that do not comply — a clear attack on freedom of expression.

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And if your child’s school has a dress code, students will be legally permitted to wear uniforms for either gender. So, get ready to explain to your first grader why a boy suddenly named Sue has appeared in a plaid pinafore, thanks to your state legislature. 

As the saying goes, if you’re not furious, you’re not paying attention. 

The layers of dangerous error in this legislation are many. House Bill 1312 trivializes and whitewashes the profound and complex medical, psychological and sociological issues surrounding what is a shatteringly disruptive occurrence for a family — let alone for the child. It is the shallowest example of legislating by talking point. 

Here are some inconvenient truths. 

In Britain, a comprehensive study by a highly respected pediatrician, in great detail, demonstrated how the headlong rush to commence “gender-affirming” drug treatments in children is based on evidence that, in the report’s words, is “shaky.” The U.S. Supreme Court will weigh a case brought by Jewish, Christian and Muslim parents about their rights to opt out of transgender school curricula — a case that will weigh evidence about negative outcomes of gender transition for children and teens. 

This is far from settled science. And the consequences of politicians blasting through warning signs in the name of their current ideological obsessions can — and will — have profound and permanent effects on children, families and Colorado society.

Those afflicted with moral certitude are determined to use whatever means are available to ensure that others adopt — or at least decline to raise objections to — their enlightened positions. They will use the force of law, as they would do in this highly controversial bill. Or, as has been seen in Colorado and elsewhere — they will key your car, blow up car dealerships, tear down statues, burn businesses to the ground and even vandalize the State Capitol.   

What is occurring is the latest example of what author Rod Dreher, in his important book “Live Not By Lies,” labelled soft totalitarianism. 

Dreher writes “the left pushes its ideology ever deeper into the personal realm, leaving fewer and fewer areas of daily life uncontested.” And when they do so, as is occurring in House Bill 1312, “nothing can be permitted to exist that contradicts society’s ruling ideology.”

And yet, in public inflection points such as this in history, brave people have risen and said they will not be silenced into living a lie. Or being forced to ignore evidence, and common sense, they know to be valuable and cautionary. 

If this dangerous legislation is enacted without electoral penalty, or even perceived political risk for its advocates, and the governing party is even further emboldened, it will not be the end of the attacks on your children, your freedom and your conscience.  

Do not live to regret your decision to be silent when, at some future date, the thought police arrive in your living room and threaten to dismantle your family. 

Sean Duffy is a former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens and Colorado-based strategic communications consultant. He now serves as vice president at a philanthropic foundation. The views expressed here are his own.