Colorado lawmakers advanced a bill this week that would make legal records of children who request name changes private after the legislation’s Democratic sponsors removed part of the bill in response to objections from Gov. Jared Polis.
Supporters argue the bill, Senate Bill 26-018, is necessary to protect the privacy of transgender kids and their families, and children who change their names for other reasons, including adoption and cultural or religious practices.
The proposal initially went further. The bill’s original version would have also directed family court judges to consider a parent’s acceptance of their child’s gender identity when determining parenting time.
But that section was removed during its first committee hearing on Wednesday. According to bill sponsors State Sen. Katie Wallace, D-Longmont, and State Rep. Lorena Garcia, D-Adams County, Polis threatened to veto the bill if the provision wasn’t pulled.
“We previously expressed strong concerns regarding the confusing family law provisions and were encouraged to see that section taken out of the legislation,” said spokesperson for the governor Eric Maruyama in a statement. “We look forward to further discussions on the remaining provisions of the legislation.”
A bill passed last year had a similar provision in its original version that was also removed before it reached the governor’s desk. Wallace and Garcia said they removed it this year to preserve a path forward for the rest of the bill.
“The governor's office still was not supportive of the provision, which is their prerogative, but it was disappointing,” said Wallace.
The sponsors said Polis is now putting more pressure on them, and wants them to scrap the bill completely and re-introduce a new one with what’s left in the measure.
“To me, that is such an inappropriate request from a governor, because this is the legislature. We are a separate but equal branch,“ said Garcia. “We don't have to have permission from the governor to run policy.”
Wallace and Garcia said they plan to move forward with the bill as is, which is also sponsored by State Sen. Chris Kolker, D-Centennial, and State Rep. Meg Froelich, D-Englewood.
After Wednesday’s amendments, the measure would still require courts to automatically suppress the records of name-change petitions for people under 18 years old, meaning they would only be accessible with a court order or to judges, attorneys, and other judicial officers associated with a particular petition.
Name-change petitions for minors are filed by parents in civil court, and the records are relatively easy for the public to search through online filings.
Advocates testified that public records can be used to out transgender kids to their schools and communities.
“That parent looked up the child's name change and exposed that child as transgender in second grade to the entire school community through flyers and through her own children,” said Z Williams, co-director of Bread and Roses Legal Center. “That is why we asked the senators and representatives to run this bill.”
Zorion Wilbanks, a member of the Ho-Chunk and Oneida Nations and outreach and advocacy specialist for the Four Corners Rainbow Youth Center in Durango, said the policy would also protect Indigenous children who are also given spiritual names.
Wilibanks said it’s important to have “a route for youth to be able to be seen as their spiritual names rather than their first and often English names.“
“This bill allows for that to be a route for Indigenous youth,” Wilbanks added.
More than 70 witnesses signed up to testify at the hearing, both in support and opposition to SB-18. Much of the opposition focused on the directive for family court judges, even though that section was removed from the bill, and criticism of gender-affirming care.
The committee voted along party lines to advance the bill. It now heads to the Senate.
