Colorado Mom Takes Fight to Protect Kids Directly to Voters

By Jennifer Brown | The Colorado Sun

A mother in Wellington is the driving force behind two Colorado ballot measures on transgender youth — one that would outlaw surgeries to change a child’s sex characteristics and another that would require transgender kids to play on sports teams that match their biological sex.

Erin Lee, who also is pushing a third ballot measure that would put child sex traffickers in prison for life, says all three issues up for vote in next month’s election are part of her fight against the “sexualization of children.”

Lee’s catapult into politics, and her founding of an issue committee in 2024 called Protect Kids Colorado, stems from an invitation her 12-year-old daughter received to a middle school gender and sexualities club. 

The three proposals are some of the most contentious on the November ballot and track with a national Republican movement that calls for increased parental rights and shielding children from sexuality and gender influences. In Colorado, Lee has become a lightning rod for controversy, to the point that she said she is called an “anti-trans bigot just about every day” and had to increase security at her home because of death threats against her and her husband, she told The Colorado Sun in an interview.

Lee’s experience with her daughter’s middle school club propelled her into a prominent role in Colorado’s debate over transgender youth. But the ballot measures she helped put before voters do not address school clubs or parental guidance over school issues. Instead, opponents say the initiatives would have a broad impact on medical care and criminal sentencing, going far beyond any personal experience that drew Lee into politics.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE AT THE COLORADO SUN