In Case You Missed It: Colorado Enacts Protections for Transgender Individuals

Follow us on LinkedIn to see future Client Alerts.

Patricia Tsipras

June 16, 2025

At a time when states are redefining terms and amending statutes in response to President Trump’s Executive Order entitled Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government, Colorado enacted legal protections for transgender individuals.  See House Bill 25-1312.

Effective May 16, 2025, Colorado enacted the Kelly Loving Act.  Kelly Loving was a transgender woman who was a victim of the Club Q mass shooting in Colorado in 2022.

The Act:

• amends Colorado law related to Domestic Matters to authorize county clerks and recorders to issue new marriage or civil union licenses reflecting a party’s name change if a party to the marriage presents them with appropriate documentation of such name change. The new licenses are not to indicate that they have been amended or changed.
• amends Colorado law related to Education to require that any policy that a local education provider chooses to enact or enforce related to names be inclusive of all reasons that a student may adopt a name that differs from their legal one.
• further amends Education statutes to require that any dress code policy implemented as part of a safe school plan of a school district board of education or institute charter school allow each student to choose from any of the options provided in the policy.
• amends the definitions applicable to the Colorado Civil Rights Division to add “chosen name,” meaning a name that an individual requests to be known as in connection with their protected characteristics (including, but not limited to, their sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression), as long as the name does not contain offensive language and the individual is not requesting the name for frivolous purposes. The Act also amends the definition of “gender expression” to add “chosen name, and how the individual chooses to be addressed” to the ways in which an individual may reflect and express their gender.
• adds a legislative declaration to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act to address every Coloradan’s right to access fair employment, housing opportunities, public accommodations, and advertising without discrimination, as well as their right to choose health care services “without unnecessary governmental interference.”[1]
• repeals a provision of the Birth Certificate Modernization Act that allows the state registrar to amend the gender designation on an individual’s birth certificate only once without a court order.
• authorizes the amendment of a driver’s license or identification card up to three times (currently, only one time is permitted) without a court order. These provisions take effect on October 1, 2026.

While the Kelly Loving Act is significant, the final Act is a much watered-down version of the original proposal.  By way of example, the original bill defined misgendering, deadnaming (using a person’s birth name rather than their chosen name), and threatening to “out” a transgender person as forms of coercive control that could be considered in family law cases.  It also proposed to consider deadnaming and misgendering as evidence of an intent to discriminate.  The original bill also proposed to allow courts to consider – when determining a child’s best interests in child custody cases – whether a parent affirms their child’s gender identity.  The original bill also included a provision to protect parents who provide gender-affirming care to their children from laws in other states that could threaten their custody.

The Act is facing at least two legal challenges from groups that say that being required to use a transgender person’s chosen name and recognize their gender violates First Amendment rights.  Rubin Fortunato will follow these lawsuits and update this article with any significant developments.

The author of this article, Patricia Tsipras, is a member of the Bar  of Pennsylvania.  This article is designed to provide one perspective regarding recent legal developments, and is not intended to serve as legal advice in Pennsylvania, Colorado, or any other jurisdiction, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship with any reader of the article where one does not exist.  Always consult an attorney with specific legal issues.

[1]              In furtherance of this last point, Colorado also enacted An Act to Protect Access to Gender-Affirming Health Care (GAHCA) on May 23, 2025.  See House Bill 25-1309.  The GAHCA defines “gender-affirming health care” as supplies, care, and services of a medical, behavioral health, mental health, psychiatric, habilitative, surgical, therapeutic, diagnostic, preventive, rehabilitative, or supportive nature relating to the treatment of gender dysphoria.  Among other things, the GAHCA prohibits a health benefit plan from denying or limiting medically necessary gender-affirming health care, as determined and prescribed by a physical or behavioral health care provider.