This so-called "Live and Let Live Act" (HB 1206) goes as far, if not farther, than the infamous Amendment 2 in 1992 that resulted in Colorado getting a reputation as the "Hate State."
The House Judiciary Committee will hear HB 1206 on Tuesday, March 27. Contact the committee and urge them to reject this extreme attempt to take our state backwards on LGBTQ rights.
HB 1206 would roll back protections for LGBTQ Coloradans and their families in nearly every facet of their lives. For example, it would:
• Allow a business to fire an LGBTQ employee just because of who they are.
• Allow LGBTQ people to be excluded from homeless shelters, housing, family emergency services, and more.
• Invite employers to discriminate against transgender people by adopting exclusionary dress codes and policies with respect to bathroom or locker room facilities.
• Allow businesses open to the public to discriminate against same-sex couples seeking commercial services for weddings that those businesses provide to other couples in Colorado.
•Allow government officials to pick and choose who to serve, by denying marriage licenses or other services to same-sex couples.
•Allow mental health providers, even school counselors, to refuse care to LGBTQ Coloradans.
• Allow healthcare providers to deny necessary care to transgender Coloradans.
This bill would do harm to even the most vulnerable children in our state, by promoting discrimination in the areas of foster care and adoption. Even if a same-sex couple or LGBTQ person offers a healthy, stable, and happy family to a child in the foster care system, an agency could turn them away and deny that child a home simply because the agency objects to the family, regardless of the child’s best interests.
This bill doesn’t reflect Colorado values. It’s a mean-spirited attempt to add hate and discrimination to our laws, and the legislature should reject it.
Contact the House Judiciary Committee today. Urge them to vote NO on HB 1206.- via ACLU Colorado
