Legal experts told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the Colorado bill, which aims to classify people who identify transgender people as discriminatory, could hit constitutional obstacles by distinguishing people who identify transgender people as discriminatory.

Colorado House on April 6th I passed HB25-1312, “Kelley loving conduct” would define “misgender” and “denaming” transgender people as “discriminatory conduct” and would ban them in “public accommodation.” The bill would increase the scope of the “anti-discrimination” law, which has repeatedly won the state on legal issues surrounding the rights of Christian business owners to adhere to their religious beliefs.

“Councils across the country have determined that the First Amendment protects freedom from supporting a message that violates its core beliefs,” Gregory Baylor, senior adviser at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), told DCNF. “The pending Colorado bill would violate legal protections for freedom of speech and religious freedom.”

📢Colorado Church:

Encourage and equip your congregation against the opposite of HB 25-1312––.https://t.co/str5i52f8n

– erlc (@erlc) April 15, 2025

ADF, on behalf of Colorado resident Jack Phillips, owner of Cakeshop, Colorado, and Rory Smith, owner of 303 Creative, hopes to revise the new speech restrictions and amendments in separate U.S. Supreme Court cases relating to Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws.

Christian Phillips has been sued twice for refusing to make a cake that promotes same-sex marriage and transgenderism as part of a 12-year spatches of legal combat. The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 in favour of Phillips. The court also upheld Smith’s first right to amend the game in 2023, refusing to create graphic designs for same-sex weddings.

justice It’s attracting attention In Smith’s majority opinion, that the state has applied the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, “to include almost all public businesses within the state.” The latest proposed expansion of the law will also place audio restrictions on all businesses in the “public accommodation” category.

Democrat-backed legislation Define “Reference” as “Deadnaming”[ing] “Misunderstanding” is the intentional “ignoring” the gender you are saying “incorrectly” by “using honor or pronouns” that contradicts “incorrectly.”

“Trans people are heard, respected and safe in Colorado, and all we can do is show the dignity and respect of being called by their chosen name,” Democrat Colorado Sen. Rebekah Stewart told DCNF. Stewart is the leading sponsor of HB25-1312 along with Democrats of Colorado, Lorea Garcia and democratic Colorado Senators Winter and Chris Colker.

“The intent of our bill is to create an environment where trans people can live without fear of harassment or discrimination,” Stewart said. “With this law, Colorado continues to protect the civil rights of all people in our state.”

García, Winter and Kolker did not respond to DCNF’s request for comment. Their bill is now heading towards the Democrat-controlled Colorado Senate, and if the Senate passes, they will go to the desk of Democrat Colorado Gov. Jared Police. Police has not publicly said whether he supports the bill, but he has previously signed the law on other related transgender bills, Deseret News It has been reported.

The law also elicited a backlash due to sections that required judges to deem “dead” and “misunderstanding” as abusive behavior in child custody. The Southern Baptist Treaty said the “radical” bill would allow Colorado courts to use the biblical views of parents of gender and sexuality as evidence against them. caveat To the local church. (Related: State legislators compare parents against the KKK who oppose the parent-gender bill)

a Constitutional Law Experts at the Foundation for Personal Rights and Expression (fires) also said that Kelly Loving Act “produces serious first-revision issues.”

“It’s not about a refusal to actual service to trans people. Instead, it targets “misunderstandings” or “dead” if done with the intent to discriminate,” said Aaron Tellre, a fire chief of public advocacy. “It blurs the line between discriminatory conduct and protected speech.”

“The nation can prohibit the public from making service to people for race, gender or other protected characteristics,” Terr told DCNF. “But that doesn’t tell people what they say or don’t say as a condition for people to do business.”

“Speaking doesn’t lose First Amendment protections, simply because some people find it offensive or rude,” Terr added.

Democrat Colorado officials But Yara Zokae I said At the hearing Early April The bill does not need to discuss it with “hate groups” that refer to custody groups opposed to the bill.

“We cannot have a difference of opinion about someone else’s fundamental rights,” Zokae said. “And recognizing that trans people exist is not a matter of political opinion.”

“A bill that has a proper interest does not need to be discussed with hate groups,” she said of custody groups. “We won’t make sure that anyone doesn’t pass civil rights law and ask the KKK to ask them what they think,” Zokae added.

Critics argue that the Colorado bill sets up a similar battle of free speech as those witnessed in the case of Phillips and Smith.

“It appears that many Colorado legislators are ignoring the lessons they’ve learned. [Lorie Smith’s case]the U.S. Supreme Court has reduced the illegal application of the exact same law these laws are trying to amend,” Baylor told DCNF.

“No one should face punishment for refusing to say anything that everyone thinks is wrong,” Baylor said.

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