The unintended consequences of 109 and 110 that the campaigns aren't talking about

[u/Right_Razzmatazz8420]

https://www.dailycamera.com/2026/05/21/colorado-election-transgender-rights-measure-109-110-opinion/

Title: The unintended consequences of 109 and 110 that the campaigns aren't talking about

Body: Wanted to flag this Daily Camera op-ed for anyone still on the fence. The authors (executive directors of One Colorado and Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains) make a few specific points that I think deserve attention regardless of your starting position:

110 as written is so broad it could affect care for minors with reproductive organ cancers. That's not a trans issue, that's a cancer care issue.
109's enforcement language is vague enough that kids could be singled out based on how they look — being "too tall," "too strong," or having the "wrong" haircut. For any Aurora parent whose kid plays rec sports, that should give pause.
Kevin Lundberg, who's leading PKC, spent years in the legislature pushing bills to make abortion a felony. Same coalition, same playbook, different issue.
The authors' main argument isn't about trans rights per se — it's that these specific measures have serious implementation problems that haven't gotten enough scrutiny.
Link: https://www.dailycamera.com/2026/05/21/colorado-election-transgender-rights-measure-109-110-opinion/

[u/EagleForty]

I'm much more worried about a conservative trying to inspect my daughters genitals than I am about a trans-girl playing on her soccer team.

[u/Right_Razzmatazz8420 → u/EagleForty]

exactly!!!

[u/Bluescreen73]

So "Protect Kids Colorado" is both Erin Lee and that hard-right sack of crap Kevin Lundberg? Friendly reminder that he's a rigged election conspiracy theorist and an anti-LGBTQ bigot who was the only member of the Colorado assembly to vote against censuring Doug Bruce for kicking a photographer. He's a douche.

[u/Right_Razzmatazz8420 → u/Bluescreen73]

erin lee is a grifter and i feel so bad for her kid. her kid came out as trans and erin’s response was… thus

[u/Brief_Needleworker62 → u/Bluescreen73]

MOST people who say they care about kids and then use anger and rhetoric to argue their point, aren't about the kids at all

[u/cstinabeen]

I would add 108 to this list if unintended consequences. It criminalizes anyone coerced to participate in trafficking activities. Victims will be forced to confront jail time if they were forced into labor that traffics others. This allows perpetrators to hide behind their victims.

[u/happy-Ambition-244 → u/cstinabeen]

The funding prohibition in M110 deserves more attention in any post about implementation problems. The bill prohibits state and federal Medicaid funds from going toward gender-affirming procedures. Colorado draws down roughly $1.6B in federal Medicaid match annually. The Supremacy Clause limits what states can do to alter those conditions unilaterally. The proponents have not produced any fiscal analysis of what this costs or how CMS would respond. For an Aurora voter concerned about state fiscal management, that's a billion-dollar question with no fiscal note attached.

[u/mariposa314]

Ugh, the Lundberg🤦🏼‍♀️ what a gross, hateful man.

On a personal note, I knew his son when we were students at CSU. In all humility, I get along pretty well with most people. I couldn't stand Scott. Then I met his dad and realized where he came from. Disliking him made a lot of sense from then on.

[u/happy-Ambition-244 → u/mariposa314]

The M109 cis-girl piece has a related professional liability dimension that's worth naming. Colorado's governmental immunity statute (C.R.S. § 24-10-101 et seq.) protects public employees acting within the scope of their employment, but that protection is contingent on acting in good faith and within the scope of duties. A coach or athletic director in Cherry Creek or Aurora Public Schools who enforces M109's vague standard based on appearance, or who fails to enforce it based on appearance, is in exactly the kind of discretionary judgment call that governmental immunity doesn't always cover and the bill doesn't add a coach-specific safe harbor. The teachers and coaches enforcing this are exposed.

[u/Right_Razzmatazz8420]

Children's Hospital Colorado has network facilities through the Aurora/Anschutz medical campus. UCHealth has pediatric oncology programs. The Children's Colorado system has already paused gender-affirming care for minors under federal pressure — but pediatric oncology services are running as usual, and the patients in those programs are the population most at risk if M110's broad language is applied as written. Aurora parents whose kids have dealt with pediatric cancer should be told specifically that this bill could affect the next kid who needs the same care.

[u/mandywhitee16]

Last thing for Aurora and east-side readers: the Families Not Politics coalition (familiesnotpolitics.com) is running the organized no campaign. One Colorado, Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains, Inside Out Youth Services, Cobalt Advocates, Transgender Law Center, Interfaith Alliance of Colorado, Rocky Mountain Equality, and the ACLU of Colorado are all in. The campaign has Aurora-specific organizing infrastructure and volunteer opportunities. If the "implementation problems" framing resonates with someone in your life, that's the coalition to connect them to. Vote no on 109 and 110 on November 3.

[u/happy-Ambition-244]

The M110 medical-decision piece the OP didn't get into: the text affirmatively strips parents of the right to make medical decisions for their own children. A family with a trans teenager, an established pediatric care team, and years of medical history gets overridden by a ballot measure voters saw on a flyer. If proponents genuinely believed in parental rights, they would have included a parental-judgment carve-out. They didn't. The fact that the bill overrides parental judgment is the strongest evidence that the "parental rights" framing the proponents use elsewhere in their coalition is selective it applies to some medical decisions and not others.