By Michael A. Hancock | Commentary, Colorado Politics
From the rugged ridgelines of the Rockies now echoes a different kind of thunder — not from the skies above, but from the marble halls of Colorado’s State Capitol, where lawmakers are ushering in a bill that feels less like legislation and more like dogma.
House Bill 25-1312, ostentatiously named the “Kelly Loving Act,” is heralded as a civil rights measure. But dig past the buzzwords and you’ll find something far more troubling: a secular creed imposed with such fervor it borders on religious zealotry — and as such, possibly violates the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause.
At the heart of the bill is a sweeping redefinition of “coercive control” in family law. If passed, courts would be mandated to treat “deadnaming” and “misgendering” as a form of psychological abuse in custody battles.
To clarify: a parent referring to their child by their given name or biological pronouns — regardless of intent — could be labeled abusive by the state.
The penalty? A reduction or removal of parental rights.
Let’s call this what it is: compelled affirmation of a belief system. It doesn’t matter whether your conviction stems from religious faith, scientific reasoning, or parental instinct — HB25-1312 would strip you of your right to dissent.
And therein lies the constitutional rot. The First Amendment isn’t just about the freedom to speak; it’s also the freedom not to speak, and certainly the freedom not to be conscripted into someone else’s ideological crusade.
What Colorado is flirting with is not mere legislation — it is state-enforced orthodoxy. A modern blasphemy code dressed in the garments of progressivism.
It doesn’t stop at the family.