Despite two losses in the Supreme Court, Colorado is trying once again to enforce its anti-discrimination laws on the people of the Rocky Mountain State, contrary to the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.

In 2018, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that Colorado had acted in bias against Jack Phillips of Lakewood, CO when they found him guilty of violating Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act for refusing to design and bake a cake celebrating the wedding of a gay couple. The Supreme Court, in that case, did not rule on the matter of Colorado’s supressing the religious freedom of Phillips, but ruled that Colorado acted in bias against Phillips’ Christian faith. In 2024, the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed charges against Phillips, this time for his refusal to bake a cake celebrating a transgender person’s transition. In 2023, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Lorie Smith of Littleton, CO, who designs websites for weddings. Because of her Christian convictions, Ms. Smith did not want to design websites for same-sex weddings. In anticipation of having to refuse such a couple, Ms. Smith took Colorado to court when they passed the Anti-Discrimination Act, and won.

Now Colorado has passed a law this past May that would make it illegal to “misgender” or “dead name” a trans person. To “misgender” a trans person is to address them with the pronouns that correspond to their biological gender, rather than their “chosen” gender. So, if you’re a waitress serving a person at a restaurant, and that person looks like a man, talks like a man, and acts like a man, but has decided in his heart that he is a woman, and you address him as “Sir,” you will be in violation of Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. You will be a criminal. How will people know if a person who looks like one gender has decided that he or she is another gender? I don’t know. Do you know? There are plenty of people who have only just begun their journey to transition from one gender to another. There is nothing about them that indicates that they are not the gender that corresponds to their biological gender. But it’s up to us to figure out their gender and to address them accordingly? Are we now supposed to ask everyone we meet their pronouns so we don’t risk a criminal record and criminal penalties? Of course, if a person is obviously transgender and is far along or has completed their transition, you might still have religious or personal convictions against addressing them according to their chosen pronouns because you know that people cannot choose their gender, and have no right to expect others to play along with their delusions or fantasies. But if you decide not to play along, you will be a criminal in Colorado.

To “dead name” a person is to use their former name. You know, the name that corresponded to their former gender identity. So Jack became Jill. If you knew Jack before he became Jill, and weren’t aware that Jack had become Jill, and you call him “Jack,” you will be violation of Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act. You will be a criminal. Now, I suppose, we’ll all have to inquire among our friends whom we’ve not seen in a while if they’re still going by the name they went by when we last saw them, so we don’t risk a criminal record and criminal penalties.

Just as a side, I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been called “Ma’am” in my career as a nurse. Yes, this has happened over the phone, but even face-to-face. I would enter a hospital room and the parent or patient would address me as “Ma’am.” Of course, they would immediately apologize. It happened so often, at minimum half a dozen times a year, that I even had a joke prepared for when it did. After they apologized, I would tell them not to worry about it; the beard must have thrown them off!

Of course, Colorado’s new law is in direct violation of the U. S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The government cannot compel speech. The government cannot force me to speak in favor of a political position that I do not support, claim a religious belief that I do not hold, or participate in a rally for particular social cause that I am not behind. Such requirements would violate my conscience and convictions, and the U. S. Constitution does not allow the government to do that.

Neither can the government force me to say that red is blue, daisies are daffodils, or that veins transport blood from the heart, while arteries transport blood to the heart. These are all violations of the truth, and to require that I say them would also be a violation of my conscience and convictions, and the U. S. Constitution does not allow the government to do that.

Just so, a male is a male and a female is a female. A male cannot decide to become a female, or vice versa. A female cannot realize that she is a male, and so claim to be a male, or vice versa. There are only two genders. To say otherwise to those above statements is speak contrary to the truth. To speak contrary to the truth is contrary to the moral teachings of most religions of the world, but also of the convictions of most secularists. For Colorado to claim it has the authority, under penalty of law, to force a person to speak contrary to their sincerely held religious beliefs, or even their sincerely held conviction to speak the truth, is a violation of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. Of course, Colorado’s new law is being challenged, so the taxpayers of Colorado will have to foot the bill to defend a law they know is bound to lose in the courts. I hope they’re paying attention to this when the next election cycle comes along, and they boot out of public office the morons who decided this fight was worth fighting.

Satan is the father of lies. He is the father of gender ideology, which is a lie perpetrated on innocent people who only want to live their lives in the truth. Victims of this lie include anyone who has lost a job for expressing disapproval of the gender agenda being forced down their throat at work, anyone who has lost their reputation for expressing their disapproval of gender ideology in a public forum, anyone who has lost a loved one who is trapped in the mental disfunction of gender confusion, anyone who has been called a bigot because they will not call a man a woman, anyone who has lost a sports competition or scholarship to someone who is under the delusion of thinking themselves the other gender, anyone who has lost a spouse or a parent who has abandoned his or her family because they decided they have to live their true selves, anyone who has been traumatized by the presence of a person of the opposite gender being in their locker room, any woman or girl who has been assaulted by predators exploiting laws and policies that allow men and boys into women’s and girls’ safe spaces, and so many other innocents who have suffered the consequences of this great lie.

But the real victims are those who are convinced by their own delusion or convinced by others who push their desires on them (in particular parents who push their kids to be transgender out of a desire to demonstrate how virtuous they are). They are victims of their own mental illness, and victims of those who believe the only right thing to do is to accomodate their mental illness.

We must resist the lie. As Christians, we live in the truth of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. We cannot submit to the lie. We must be willing to speak the truth and live the truth, regardless of the consequences. This Colorado law will not impose serious consequences. There already are lawsuits filed against it, and Colorado will lose. But that won’t mean that the struggle is over, and it won’t mean that greater force and pressure will not be placed on those who insist on speaking and living the truth. We must be prepared for that day when we may have to stand for the truth against great odds, and in the face of great consequences. But be not dismayed. The truth will set you free.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.