Colorado’s Ideological Regime Doubles Down

By Laureen Boll | Commentary, FAIR Colorado

HB26-1322 is a weaponized end-run around the Constitution

The Supreme Court’s October 2025 oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar exposed Colorado’s conversion-therapy ban for what it is: raw viewpoint discrimination dressed up as “child protection.” Conservative justices grilled the state on why a licensed counselor could affirm a minor’s gender identity or homosexuality but face professional ruin for exploring the opposite — neutral talk therapy aligned with a family’s faith or biology.

The writing is on the wall, as the majority seems ready to apply strict scrutiny and likely strike down the ban as unconstitutional professional speech regulation.

Colorado’s Democrat-majority legislature refuses to accept the likely verdict of the highest court in the land. Instead, just months after oral arguments, Democrat legislators introduced HB26-1322 — “Civil Actions for Conversion Therapy Survivors.”

This is not protection; this is retaliation. It replaces the unconstitutional conversion therapy ban with an even more insidious regime of unlimited civil liability, designed to chill the very speech the Court is attempting to protect.

The asymmetry is not subtle; it is the bill’s core feature and the clearest proof of ideological capture. The statute creates a new cause of action solely for “sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts” — any practice that “seeks to direct” a patient toward a “predetermined” outcome other than transgender affirmation.

No statute of limitations. Punitive damages. Relaxed causation rules. Therapists, their supervisors, and even employers who “should have known” are all fair game.

But read the exclusions, written in black and white: the bill explicitly shields “counseling or therapy that provides assistance to a patient undergoing gender transition,” “acceptance, support, and understanding” of transgender identity, and anything “neutral” that does not push back against a patient’s predetermined gender identity.

Exploratory therapy? Watchful waiting? Religious counseling that affirms biological reality? Those are now financial landmines. Gender-affirming therapy that fast-tracks minors toward hormones and surgery? Sacred, untouchable, state-endorsed.

This is not neutral public policy. This is the legislature picking winners in the culture war and punishing dissenters. And the hypocrisy is staggering.

Just weeks earlier, the same Democrat-controlled House committee killed HB26-1128 on an 8-3 party-line vote. That bill — sponsored by a Republican — would have extended the statute of limitations for victims of youth gender medical transition procedures, giving detransitioners until age 38 to sue the doctors and therapists who harmed them. Democrats postponed the bill indefinitely.

No desire for accountability when the harm flows from the “affirming” side. But when the harm allegedly flows from the “non-affirming” side? Unlimited lookback, no mercy.

The evidence ignored by Colorado’s Democrat legislators is overwhelming. The Cass Review in Britain, systematic reviews across Europe, and the cascade of clinic closures in Sweden, Finland, and the UK all show the same thing: the “gender-affirming” model rests on remarkably weak evidence. Social transition, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones — the long-term benefits are unproven; the harms (sterility, loss of sexual function, bone density collapse, regret) are real and mounting.

Yet Colorado’s Democrats treat affirmation as settled science and exploratory therapy as quackery.

Real-world consequences are already appearing in courtrooms. In February 2026, a New York jury awarded $2 million to detransitioner Fox Varian, who underwent a double mastectomy at 16 after her psychologist “drove the train,” diagnosed gender dysphoria, and fast-tracked her to the surgeon. The psychologist bore the brunt of the judgment for pressuring a minor into irreversible surgery without proper safeguards.

This is the exact pipeline Colorado Democrats wish to protect under HB26-1322: the affirming therapist as ideological gatekeeper — diagnosing “gender dysphoria,” declaring the child’s self-identification infallible, referring the patient to a surgeon — then hiding behind ordinary statutes of limitations when the child later desists or detransitions and recognizes the harm.

Meanwhile, an exploratory therapist who helps a patient confront biological reality, only to face that same patient years later deciding they are “transgender,” could be dragged into court with no statute of limitations, punitive damages, relaxed causation rules, and the threat of financial ruin. That is the deeper scandal: the same regime that shields rushed affirmation punishes the ‘wrong’ viewpoint.

The Colorado legislature is not “protecting children from harmful speech.” It is protecting a failing medical experiment from scrutiny.

It is punishing therapists who refuse to march in lockstep with radical gender theory while granting absolution to those who accelerate kids toward lifelong medical dependence. The asymmetry is not a bug; it is the feature that reveals ideological capture.

The Supreme Court may soon restore the First Amendment rights of therapists. And Colorado’s ideologues have shown their hand: they will weaponize every lever of state power — licensing, litigation, and selective silence — to fight back when the Constitution gets in the way.

If you wish to testify in opposition to this bill, the hearing in the Judiciary committee is scheduled to begin at 1:30pm Mountain this Wednesday, March 25. Instructions on how to register to testify are at https://leg.colorado.gov/content/committees. You can testify remotely or in-person.

FAIR Colorado is tracking bills that appear to sacrifice our civil liberties in favor of identity politics. You can view our legislative tracker here.

Read more commentary by Laureen Boll at the FAIR Colorado Substack.

A Coloradan since the 1970s, Laureen is a dedicated parent and advocate for individual dignity and academic excellence in K-12 education, and she is passionate about preserving the independent spirit and values of her beloved home state.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.