Rocky Mountain Voice

Menu

Tag: Mental health

Colorado detransitioner’s story anchors Protect Kids Colorado event on safeguarding vulnerable children
No Comments
Rocky Mountain Voice, Commentary, Local, Top Stories

Colorado detransitioner’s story anchors Protect Kids Colorado event on safeguarding vulnerable children

By Antoinette De La Cruz | Guest Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice My name is Antoinette. I am a detransitioner. And I want to save Colorado’s children from enduring the anguish I’ve been through. I began exploring transitioning into a man during my late teenage years and spent nearly 20 years trying to turn myself into a man before I realized my mistake. Now I am mutilated and sterilized as the result of multiple surgeries with life-threatening complications. My body has been a battlefield of “gender affirmative care.” I grew up in a household of physical, mental and sexual abuse and during my childhood, I learned I had no value as a person and certainly no value as a girl. I learned that being a girl meant being a target. And I did not want to be a target. So I transitioned to...
Read More
Colorado Safe2Tell Reports Hit Record High as Student Concerns Surge
No Comments
kdvr.com, Approved, State

Colorado Safe2Tell Reports Hit Record High as Student Concerns Surge

By Jacob Factor | KDVR Fox31 DENVER (KDVR) — Colorado students made a record number of reports last school year to Safe2Tell, which the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said revealed “progress and pain” as students trust the program more but continue to face challenges. The 2024-2025 school year saw students make 31,177 reports to Safe2Tell, an 11% increase from the previous year and the highest number of reports since the organization launched in 2004. “This report tells two stories at once,” Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a press release. “It shows incredible courage and compassion. Students are stepping up to protect one another in record numbers. But it’s also a reminder that our kids are not okay. These reports reflect real distress, and our collective respo...
Read More
Colorado Parental Rights Group Pushes to Repeal Controversial Competency Law
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, State

Colorado Parental Rights Group Pushes to Repeal Controversial Competency Law

By Marissa Ventrulli | Colorado Politics A group of parental rights advocates and Republican lawmakers is urging the Colorado legislature to repeal a 2024 law that made changes to the state’s competency procedures. Established over the summer, the group called “We The Parents” includes members of the Colorado Parental Advocacy Network and legislators from the more conservative wing of the Republican Party: Reps. Brandi Bradley of Littleton, Stephanie Luck of Penrose, and Ken DeGraaf of Colorado Springs. On its website, the organization describes itself as a group of parents and community leaders “who are done watching politicians ignore the voices of families.” “We’ve watched lawmakers strip away parental rights behind closed doors,” the group’s website says. “That ends now. We...
Read More
Young Americans are dropping trans and queer labels, study finds sharp cultural shift
No Comments
The Western Journal, Approved, National

Young Americans are dropping trans and queer labels, study finds sharp cultural shift

By Bryan Chai | The Western Journal Critics of transgenderism have often described the trend as a “social contagion.” A blistering new report from the Centre for Heterodox Social Science just gave that label newfound heft. In short, the report found that, after surging in the 2010s and 2020s, trans and “queer” identities are in sharp decline among young Americans. Colleges — typically maligned as being the breeding ground for far-leftism in 2025 — saw the number of trans-identifying students cut nearly in half after its peak in 2023. That year, nearly 7 percent of college students identified as trans. That number now sits at less than 4 percent. The report also made a point to note that that percentage could drop even further soon: “Today’s freshmen are less BTQ...
Read More
Power first, children last: The true legacy of Randi Weingarten’s teachers union
No Comments
TownHall.com, Approved, Commentary, National

Power first, children last: The true legacy of Randi Weingarten’s teachers union

By Natalya Murakhver | Commentary, Townhall When America looks back at the COVID era, history will not be kind to Randi Weingarten and the American Federation of Teachers. At a time when our nation’s children needed leadership, compassion, and courage, Weingarten delivered none of it. Instead, she manipulated the crisis of school closures to expand her own political influence, sacrificing the futures of millions of kids and betraying the trust of parents across this country. Let’s be clear: school closures were not primarily about health or science. They were about power. From the very beginning, teachers’ unions lobbied aggressively to keep schools closed far longer than necessary. They pressured public health officials and the CDC to rewrite guidelines in ways that served union int...
Read More
Supreme Court to Weigh Colorado Ban on Therapy for Gender Identity Counseling
No Comments
CBS Colorado, Approved, State

Supreme Court to Weigh Colorado Ban on Therapy for Gender Identity Counseling

By Anna Alejo | CBS Colorado On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on a case set to determine if Colorado's ban on so-called "conversion therapy" for minors violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment. The Lee family in Wellington filed an amicus brief in support of overturning Colorado's ban on the therapy. A Colorado law passed in 2019 restricts therapists from trying to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of kids under the age of 18. They opposed the law after they say it limited access for their daughter to receive therapy that met their family's needs. "They are forbidden by law from going down that path of helping a child through their gender confusion versus further into that confusion and so there's been lots of paren...
Read More
Supreme Court case claims Colorado’s conversion therapy ban erases gay identity, silences counselors
No Comments
Washington Examiner, Approved, National

Supreme Court case claims Colorado’s conversion therapy ban erases gay identity, silences counselors

By Mia Cathell | Washington Examiner A controversial Supreme Court case challenging a ban on so-called conversion therapy, as it pertains to treating transgender children, is attracting unlikely allies. At issue in Chiles v. Salazar, soon to be argued before the Supreme Court, is whether a Colorado law prohibiting “conversion therapy” for pediatric patients unconstitutionally restricts a counselor’s free speech rights, via viewpoint discrimination, when that therapist wants to counsel children experiencing gender dysphoria toward embracing their biological sex. A number of traditionally progressive third parties are siding with the plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian counselor who nudges clients to “live consistently with God’s design.”...
Read More
Lawmakers Face Public Backlash After Violent Suspect Freed Under New Incompetency Law
No Comments
Colorado Politics, Approved, Local

Lawmakers Face Public Backlash After Violent Suspect Freed Under New Incompetency Law

By Marissa Ventrelli | Colorado Politics A high-profile case out of Weld County involving an attempted murder has renewed debate about the state’s competency laws and public safety. The case arose from an incident last spring, in which a group of men led by 21-year-old Debisa Ephraim allegedly attacked a man and his friends in downtown Greeley. After Ephraim was found incompetent to stand trial, his charges, which included attempted murder, were dropped, and he was released from the Weld County Jail earlier this month. The office of Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams posted a video of the Greeley attack on X, saying Ephraim had been released under a 2024 law that, he said, required individuals declared incompetent and unlikely to be restored to be released from jail. “The state le...
Read More
New Study: Colorado’s Mental Health Status Among Nation’s Worst
No Comments
The Denver Gazette, Approved, State

New Study: Colorado’s Mental Health Status Among Nation’s Worst

By Debbie Kelley | The Denver Gazette For two years in a row, Colorado has had nearly the worst rate in the nation of mental illness among children and adults, when compared with other states and the District of Columbia, according to a large-scale industry study. Colorado ranks 50th — or second to last — for the prevalence of any mental health conditions in the 2025 State of Mental Health in America reports, the most recent version being released Wednesday. Vincent Atchity, president and CEO at Denver-based Mental Health Colorado, one of 140 affiliates of Mental Health America, which produces the annual analysis, isn’t surprised. Colorado has hovered near the bottom of the rankings for years in prevalence of mental problems and despite improving its standing to 14th best ...
Read More
UNC Dorm Gun Case Spurs Sheriff’s Push to Fix Colorado Competency Loophole
No Comments
kdvr.com, Approved, Local

UNC Dorm Gun Case Spurs Sheriff’s Push to Fix Colorado Competency Loophole

By Heather Willard, Vicente Arenas | KDVR FOX31 DENVER (KDVR) — A man accused of carrying a long gun onto the University of Northern Colorado’s campus in Greeley appeared in court on Thursday for a bond hearing, just weeks after he was released from the Weld County Jail. Ephraim Debisa, 21, was released from jail on Sept. 8 after he was found not competent to stand trial in an attempted murder case, as is required by Colorado law. When he was released, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office issued a warning to the community, calling Debisa “dangerous” and highlighting his alleged previous violent actions. On Wednesday, the Weld County Sheriff’s Office announced Debisa was re-arrested at his home after a report of him inside a UNC residence hall holding a long gun on Tuesday. Accordin...
Read More