Election results: Voters pass Colorado’s Prop 134

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Colorado voters passed a ballot measure this week to bar transgender students from joining school sports teams that match their gender identity.

Jennifer Sey, who helped lead the campaign for Proposition 134, described the passage of the measure as a watershed moment that should inspire other Democratic-led states to pass their own measures on transgender student athletes.

“In a deep blue state, with a deep blue election wave, the voters said: Protect girls’ sports,” she said.

Proposition 134 was “never a partisan issue,” she said. “Basic truth and biological reality don’t have a party.”

Sey is a former gymnast and the founder of an athletic clothing company that claims on its website that it’s “unfair and dangerous” for transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.

Proposition 134 will apply to public and private K-12 schools and colleges in Colorado and take effect Jan. 1. It won’t apply to youth sports teams offered through private clubs or leagues.

The measure is a win for conservative-leaning groups that have pushed such measures to the top of their political agenda even though the share of transgender student athletes in school sports is exceedingly small. The group Protect Kids Colorado advocated for the measure along with two other ballot issues. One, Proposition 133, increases penalties for sex trafficking. The other, Proposition 135, bars gender-affirming surgery for minors, which is extremely rare.

Currently, Colorado schools have varying policies on whether transgender students can play on sports teams that match their gender identity. Some allow it or make decisions on a case by case basis. Others, including a group of conservative-leaning districts and charter schools that unsuccessfully sued the state over the issue, don’t allow it.

Proposition 134 creates a statewide ban on the practice.

Nadine Bridges, executive director of the LGBTQ advocacy group One Colorado, which opposed the measure, said advocates will do extensive legal analysis to determine if there’s any way forward for transgender students who want to play on teams aligned with their gender identity.

“We’re going to exhaust all possibilities to ensure that our young people can be involved in what they want to be,” she said.

Proposition 134 requires schools and colleges to create new policies implementing the ballot measure’s requirements. They must designate every athletic team as male, female, or co-ed. The measure says “biological male” students could not join female teams, and “biological female” students could not join male teams, except if there is no female team in a given sport.

The ballot measure doesn’t specify how student athletes would prove their gender, but backers have suggested a doctor’s note or cheek swab DNA testing would be acceptable methods.

Opponents of Prop 134 say it targets a small and vulnerable population, subjects students to invasive gender checks, and represents government overreach. Proponents argue it would protect girls’ safety and opportunity.

The Colorado Department of Education will be responsible for enforcing Proposition 134 in public K-12 schools. The ballot measure includes no enforcement mechanism for colleges, universities, or private K-12 schools.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.