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The only Democrat to vote ‘NO’ on one of Colorado’s sneaky bloody Sunday bills speaks up

April 9, 2025 | | Print Article

Opposition to his party’s hardline stance on gender ideology found a Colorado Democrat explaining his “serious concerns regarding overreach.”

Sunday in the Centennial State, leftist lawmakers delivered what many considered to be a literal and symbolic salvo against Christian beliefs as they pushed through four bills advancing gender ideology and abortion. State Rep. Bob Marshall was the only member of the Democratic Party to oppose one of those bills, and he explained why he was specifically against parents losing custody if they “misgendered” or “deadnamed” their own child.

“This is a larger concern I have regarding the understandable reaction people are having to protect marginalized groups from the overly zealous onslaught in the new administration against diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he told The Daily Signal in an email.

“People are demanding: ‘Do something!’ But the ‘something’ can push back so hard we may push back farther than where we might have said was the right place to be in calmer times,” added the state legislator.

In addition to bills requiring insurance covering genital mutilation surgery for all ages, making abortion a right that could be funded by taxpayers and preventing state residents from cooperating with out-of-state investigations on such procedures, HB 1312 sought in part to make opposition to gender ideology a determining factor in child custody cases as it added “deadnaming (using the given name instead of a chosen identity), misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health care services” to the definition of “coercive control.”

While Marshall voted for the other bills, he opposed HB 1312, which passed 36-20 with nine members marked absent.

The lawmaker told the Signal that he had “serious concerns regarding overreach … particularly in the sections related to child custody issues and federal constitutional issues over full faith and credit” as the bill may impact custody laws of other states.

“Much of the discrimination issues of concern I think should also be addressed under normal common law torts like intentional infliction of emotional distress or negligent infliction of emotional distress,” he added, as he believed legal protections were already in place for those claiming to be the opposite gender.

Marshall reminded, “I fully support non-discrimination efforts for the LGBTQ+ community. And I voted for, and strongly backed, the gender-affirming care bill, including going to the well to push back on the GOP’s efforts to amend the bill to prohibit any gender affirming care for those under 18 years old.”

In fact, last month, the social media account Libs of TikTok pointed out that one of Marshall’s aides was a man who identified as a woman named June Churchill after staffers at the state capital had complained that he was using the women’s restroom.

“They have a man invading their private spaces and there’s nothing they can do about it,” wrote Libs. “They have tried asking legislators to do something but the Democrat controlled legislature has failed to act. This is a disgusting violation of female only private spaces. MEN DO NOT BELONG IN WOMEN’S BATHROOMS.”

As to explaining his favor for allowing genital mutilation surgery to be performed on minors, Marshall claimed that 97% of such procedures were to remove breast tissue from males who would otherwise be subject to “mistreatment and bullying.” He then went on to argue that a second-grader would be able to know that they were a “girl trapped in a boy’s body” using an anecdote of a classmate of his growing up.

Pushing back on the Democrats’ favor for “gender-affirming care,” state Rep. Jarvis Caldwell (R) reminded the Signal, “You can support actual medically necessary procedures without forcing everyone with a health care plan to pay higher premiums in order to offset the costs of permanently mutilating children.”

Kevin Haggerty
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