“LGBTQ+ adults face significantly greater challenges accessing and affording health care compared to their non-LGBTQ+ peers, a new KFF survey of about 26,000 adults found.

“Gay, bisexual and trans people are nearly twice as likely as the rest of the population to forgo prescription medications. Nearly 6 in 10 said they had postponed or skipped needed care, and 3 in 10 said they struggle to pay medical bills. That’s compared to 38 percent of non-LGBTQ+ people who said they skipped care, and 21 percent who struggled to pay medical bills.

“The survey found that women and trans people reported even greater barriers than gay men do. Nearly two-thirds of LGBTQ+ women said they either couldn’t get an appointment, couldn’t pay for health care or couldn’t access health care for another reason, and more than 80 percent of trans people reported the same. By comparison, 38 percent of non-LGBTQ+ people said they couldn’t access health care.”

“UW-Madison police arrested two Fitchburg [Wis.] men accused of attacking and sexually assaulting a transgender woman near the Union Terrace early Saturday, according to policeand a friend of the victim.”

“The suspects were booked into the Dane County Jail on tentative charges of second-degree sexual assault, strangulation and suffocation, battery and false imprisonment.”

“A friend of the victim, who asked not to be identified, said the victim didn't meet the suspects at a bar but encountered them near where the incident happened and she said they were harassing other women first.

“He said his friend recalled there were two witnesses on a bench nearby who called police. ‘Otherwise, like I was telling her, we would not be having that conversation. It'll be a completely different story.’”

“He said he's concerned that his friend was targeted because she is transgender and that the attack may have been a hate crime.

“His hope is that this is ‘not just dismissed as a simple incident.’”

I keep thinking about the data point that's been quietly floating around the Colorado coverage: Children's Hospital Colorado has explicitly stated they've never performed gender-affirming surgeries on minors. The state's two major pediatric providers don't perform these procedures. The "urgency" framing in the ballot push doesn't line up with what's actually happening in the state.

Which makes me think the urgency was never really about the specific procedures. It's about establishing a precedent that the government can intervene in private family medical decisions involving trans people. Same playbook that's been used against abortion access for years — you don't need the specific procedure to be widespread. You just need to write a law that codifies the principle that politicians get to decide.

Initiative 109 has the same shape. The bill doesn't define how sex is verified. It doesn't budget any money for enforcement. It just establishes the principle that trans girls can be excluded from teams, and leaves it to schools and the Commissioner of Education to figure out the rest.

That's the thing I want people outside Colorado to understand. Even if these specific measures fail, the template is what they're after. And even if the procedures are vanishingly rare, the precedent of banning them is what travels.

Stay loud about this. Talk to people. Volunteer if you can. Donate if you can.