Colorado legislators’ recent actions to suppress and chill speech during public comment time on HB24-1071, dubbed “Tiara’s Law,” represent an alarming assault on First Amendment rights.
Trans ideology requires adherents to use a trans-identifying person’s preferred pronouns and adopted trans name. Doing otherwise is called “misgendering” or “deadnaming.” During recent hearings on what its sponsors call “Tiara’s Law” certain legislators required that all speakers refrain from misgendering or deadnaming and engage only in “respectful discourse.” Speakers who failed to comply were interrupted, cut off, and prevented from expressing their opinions.
That’s why Institute for Free Speech attorneys filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the group Gays Against Groomers, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Network, and individuals from those groups affected by this attempt to shut down debate over transgender legislation.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, names Colorado State Representatives Lorena Garcia, Mike Weissman, Leslie Herod, and State Senators Julie Gonzales and Dafna Michaelson Jenet as having unlawfully restricted or chilled speech related to trans issues, particularly as it pertains to debate over “Tiara’s Law.”
In a particularly egregious example of unconstitutional viewpoint-based censorship, the Senate Judiciary Committee erased portions of Goeke’s testimony from the official audio record of its hearing on the bill.
To read the complaint in Gays Against Groomers, et al. v. Garcia, et al., click here. To read our full press release, click here.
