Colorado’s November midterm elections will officially include two ballot measures asking voters to determine whether transgender children deserve equal rights.

Initiative 109 asks voters to ban trans youth from playing on sports teams that don’t align with their sex assigned at birth, including at the collegiate level. Initiative 110 would ban gender-affirming surgery for minors for “the purpose of altering the minor’s biological sex characteristics” and would ban any state-run insurance program from covering such surgeries.

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Surgical interventions, however, are already almost never performed on minors. Trans minors virtually never receive bottom surgery, though some teenagers ultimately do get top surgery or facial procedures.

When it comes to sports, a 2023 study in the adolescent health journal JAMA Pediatrics put forth that anti-trans sports bans can harm trans kids’ mental health. Additionally, a recent major analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that, after one to three years of hormone therapy, trans and cis women have comparable levels of athletic fitness – something that is not even relevant until puberty anyway.

Nonetheless, GOP lobbyists and lawmakers across the country have used fearmongering over trans sports and healthcare to rile up their bases, which appears to be exactly the goal of the Colorado ballot measures.

Former state Senator Kevin Lundberg (R), a leader of the group behind the initiatives, Protect Kids Colorado, has said he is fighting to “stop the transgender plague in Colorado.”

But in an appearance on the right-wing and evangelical Lance Wallnau Show, Lundberg also admitted that the ballot measures “will change the conversation in 2026 for the elections overall in this state.”

“I believe that this is the point of the spear, you might say,” he added, “in making a change in what has become a very blue state.”

Wallnau then reaffirmed the statement, expressing hope that the initiatives would spur more conservative turnout.

Erin Lee, Lundberg’s co-leader at Protect Kids Colorado, said on the show that “gender ideology is our state-mandated religion” and that the state has “more insane, radical. unconstitutional law that harms children, that pushes this ideology, than any other state.”

Lee has been on a rampage against trans rights since claiming her child was “harmed by gender ideology in her public school.” She and Lundgren also created a documentary called Art Club about the alleged indoctrination.

Both Lee and Lundberg have repeatedly decried Colorado’s Democratic trifecta as sending the state down a “woke” path infused with “gender ideology.”

In May 2025, gay Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a landmark trans protection bill to amend the state’s anti-discrimination laws to classify misgendering and deadnaming — that is, intentionally referring to someone by a name other than the name they chose to conform with their gender identity — as discrimination. These provisions apply in places of public accommodation, like schools and workplaces.

The law also required schools to update their policies to be more gender-inclusive by allowing students to choose from any variation in the school’s dress code.

Other provisions include waiving the requirement to get a court order before changing the gender marker on a driver’s license or other forms of identification.

Colorado is now the third state to confirm an anti-trans athlete proposal as a November ballot initiative, in addition to Washington and Maine. In Nevada, a similar initiative has advanced and will likely make the ballot.

The Secretary of State’s Office approved Maine’s anti-trans measure on Tuesday after a months-long signature gathering drive, which was led by a group of self-described “girl dads.”

Maine Girl Dads is an anti-trans coalition of more than 8,000 dads (according to its website) who claim they want to “protect the dignity, opportunity, and privacy of our daughters” by discriminating against trans kids.

They claim their stance is “purely paternal, not remotely political, and based in common sense.”

The campaign was spearheaded by Leyland Streiff, who is reportedly the brother of Justin Streiff, the chief operating officer at the anti-trans Charlie Kirk-founded right-wing organization Turning Point USA.

Streiff seems to have more anti-trans motivations than a concern for keeping sports fair, though. He also testified against a state bill to protect gender-affirming care, calling trans kids “confused.”

He falsely claimed “facts and research do not back up” the need for gender-affirming care and said the state should focus on mental health resources for “youth suffering from the terrible scourge of gender dysphoria.”

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) has stood strong in support of trans rights, defeating the president’s attempts to blackmail the state into rolling back protections. In 2024, Mills signed a law making Maine a sanctuary state for trans people. 

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