Colorado’s New Law Could Jail People for ‘Misgendering’ the Dead
At the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London, many referred to the past year of conservative wins in the U.S. and other Western nations as a “vibe shift.” Perhaps, but it’s just as clear that not everyone got the memo. Many legislative bodies have doubled down on far-progressive ideology, showing how different laws actually reflect wildly different understandings of reality and the human person.
For example, a Colorado bill just passed through the House that would make “misgendering” the dead a class 2 misdemeanor punishable with up to 120 days in jail and up to $750 in fines. “If they happen to die of prostate cancer and their gender identity is female, that’s important information for us to have,” democratic Representative Karen McCormick of Longmont, CO, said. So, coroners and other officials who sign a death certificate that does not align with the deceased’s “gender identity” could face punishment similar to someone who runs a brothel.
Biologist (and atheist) Colin Wright had a different take on the bill,
[I]f a female who “identifies” as a male dies of ovarian cancer, recording her as “male” would skew medical stats and obscure real biological trends with fraudulent sex data. Over time, and across all medical contexts, this will mess with how we understand and tackle health issues.
Meanwhile, the House Speaker for the state of Maine was repeatedly silenced, and then House Democrats officially censured state Representative Laurel Libby for arguing in session that men should not compete against women in sports. Pretending instead that the matter was settled and that opposition is discrimination, this state legislative body is defying President Trump’s recent executive order on the matter. ADF General Counsel Kristen Waggoner described the situation in Maine as “. . .the same old leftist playbook we’ve seen for years: shaming and silencing women who dare to point out the reality of what is happening in their sports.”
Lawmakers in Scotland are also working to ensure that no challenges to abortion are allowed from anywhere. According to ADF International, Sara Spencer, a young American mother, was suspended from her midwifery studies in Dundee, Scotland, for posting to social media her belief that unborn children deserve protection. It remains unclear whether one can be arrested for a silent prayer at home against abortion in Scotland, as Vice-President J.D. Vance recently claimed.
And in England, teacher Kevin Lister remains in a years-long legal battle against progressive speech codes. Lister refused to use a student’s “preferred pronouns” and was eventually fired, even though he was willing to accommodate by using a “gender-neutral communication style.” His case is ongoing.
These episodes reveal that despite the dramatic change in the White House, nations do not live by executive orders alone. Culture matters and culture is both reflected in and reinforced by political realities, especially in a local context.
America’s divide, especially on issues of identity and sexual morality, is vast. In fact, the last time our nation was so divided, state by state, on an issue of such moral gravity was over slavery. We are that divided again. In places like California and Colorado, lawmakers are becoming even more creative in enforcing their ideas and punishing any who oppose them.
It’s far easier when our political conflicts are merely about different policies that aim to accomplish the same goal. It’s far more difficult when the political landscape is about achieving different ends altogether. More than mere disagreements about how to achieve a shared understanding of human flourishing, our political realities point to fundamentally different ideas about what human flourishing is or even what a human is.
Because of these high stakes, politics matters and will continue to matter for the foreseeable future. However, behind the questions of elections, candidates, and policies are deeper ones, worldview questions that matter even more and are reflected in more than just the political realm. To fight in politics without addressing the worldview conflict upstream from politics will be, in the end, an exercise in futility.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Rattankun Thongbun
Published Date: March 19, 2025
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
