August 05, 2024 11:11 AM UTC

Anti-Trans Ballot Measures Fail To Collect Enough Signatures

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• by: Colorado Pols

As of Friday, as the Colorado Times Recorder’s James O’Rourke reported, everything was supposedly on glide slope for supporters of two anti-transgender ballot measures to turn in their signatures to qualify for the November ballot today:

Earlier this year, activists from the Protect Kids Colorado coalition submitted numerous different ballot initiatives intended to target the rights of Colorado’s transgender community. By May, only two had survived examination by Colorado’s Title Board. Now, with the deadline to submit signatures coming up this Monday, some proponents said they’re confident their all-volunteer signature gathering effort can cross the finish line.

“We are doing great,” said Meghan Burke, [Pols emphasis] Denver Chapter Leader of the Independent Women’s Network, in a radio interview on July 24. “We have people all over the state, but we have a deadline of August 5th at 8 a.m. Everything has to be in the court so they can be counting it. So we only have a few more days. So we are making a huge push.”

…During her interview, [Erin Lee of Protect Kids Colorado] said that Protect Kids Colorado would stage a press conference at noon on Monday to announce the results as well as the coalition’s future plans.

“Protect Kids Colorado will have a press conference, August 5th at noon at the Capitol, where we will announce our projected numbers and our future plan for Protect Kids Colorado,” Lee said on air. “Because win or lose on these two ballot issues, we didn’t get everything through that we wanted to, and we’re not going anywhere.”

Well folks, just after 10:00AM this Monday morning, this organization Gays Against Groomers announced that on that seminal question of win or lose, the answer was…they lose.

Although we were not successful in this round to get these issues onto the ballot, we were successful in educating Colorado voters about what is happening to children and motivating parents to become involved…

The failure of these two anti-trans ballot measures to qualify comes as somewhat of a surprise, since the assumption was much like the abortion ban ballot measures the state has rejected repeatedly proponents could turn to Christian church congregations to obtain the necessary signatures at little to no cost. The Colorado Republican Party via social issue zealot “Director of Special Initiatives” Darcy Schoening regularly promoted events for signing petitions, along with state Rep. Brandi Bradley, former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, and a substantial number of local fellow conservatives and radio hosts. It was believed by proponents that these initiatives would help drive conservative voters to the polls regardless of their chance of success, which like the abortion restriction measures Colorado voters have regularly shot down was slim to none.

The failure of the traditional wedge issue pew-to-petition pipeline to deliver the required signatures in the case of these two initiatives is therefore significant, either a sign of fatigue with campaigns based on persecution of a small minority or just a long-delayed recognition that these tactics don’t work in Colorado. They haven’t in years, and Republicans have set themselves back generations in this state by failing to learn this lesson.

And just like we told the Polis recall repeat losers: if you’re not hitting the goal, don’t pretend otherwise. It just makes your failure more embarrassing.