By Marissa Ventrelli | Denver Gazette
Several organizations and a western Colorado dermatologist have filed a lawsuit seeking to block specific provisions of a recently signed state law that, as originally introduced, would have defined “deadnaming” and “misgendering” as discriminatory acts but whose final version had been heavily modified.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Defending Education, the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado, and Do No Harm. Travis Morrell, a Grand Junction dermatologist and member of Do No Harm, is also a plaintiff.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and Colorado Civil Rights Division members are named as defendants.
All five groups believe that a person’s gender identity “cannot differ from their sex assigned at birth,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote, adding that they do not want to be “forced to affirm — through the use of pronouns, names, or other language — that a biological man is actually a woman or vice versa.”
The lawsuit claims that the law, House Bill 1312, compels the plaintiffs to speak in favor of views they do not support in violation of their First Amendment rights. The complaint also challenges, on speech-based grounds, the requirement that public accommodation cannot advertise that certain people are unwelcome based on their protected characteristics.
On Tuesday, the plaintiffs filed a motion for a preliminary injunction, seeking to block the challenged provisions of the law from being enforced while the litigation unfolds.
The measure, HB 1312, drew national attention from parental rights and LGBTQ advocacy organizations alike during the legislative process.