August 15, 2024 01:15 PM UTC

Colorado Lawmaker Leads Anti-LGBT Hate Group Amid Reelection Campaign

• 1 Comments
• by: Suzie Glassman

(Promoted by Colorado Pols)

Originally posted at the Colorado Times Recorder

Colorado Republican Rep. Brandi Bradley recently announced her plans to lead a new Moms for Liberty chapter in Douglas County. Bradley was elected in 2022 to House District 39, which includes parts of Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, and other rural parts of the county and is currently running for reelection.

Douglas County would mark the home of the sixth Moms for Liberty chapter in the state – an organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) designates as an extremist hate group for its opposition to LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curricula and for supporting book bans nationwide.

It’s not clear how Bradley intends to balance running a political campaign while leading the group, which is a 501(c)4 non-profit. These types of nonprofits are prohibited from engaging primarily in political activity, including attempts to influence an election of a candidate for federal, state or local office. Furthermore, as a current elected official representing over 89,000 Douglas County residents, the vast majority of whom are not part of Moms for Liberty (its Facebook group has 46 members), Bradley will have to decide whose interests she will prioritize at the statehouse.

Bradley did not respond to a request for comment.

Moms for Liberty has a clear policy agenda and encourages elected politicians to sign a pledge “to advance policies that strengthen parental involvement and decision-making, increase transparency, defend against government overreach, and secure parental rights at all levels of government.”

Colorado Springs Republican Reps Rose Pugliese, Ken Degraaf and Scott Bottoms are among the elected officials who have signed that pledge.

Bradley plans to lead the chapter with vice–chair Ellen Daehnick, a Denver-based vocal anti-trans activist who refers to herself as a “full-time gender crank.” Though Daehnick registered as a Democrat in January, her political activity has revolved chiefly around supporting anti-trans legislation.

Daehnick and Bradley worked together with Protect Kids Colorado and leaders from other right-wing organizations, including Lori Gimelshtein of the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network and Rich Guggenheim of the extremist anti-trans group Gays Against Groomers’ Colorado, on a failed effort to collect signatures for two ballot initiatives that targeted the rights of transgender youth in Colorado.

Initiative 160 sought to ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ youth sports by restricting participation based on biological sex at birth. Initiative 175 aimed to prohibit specific medical procedures for minors, particularly targeting gender-affirming care.

Daehick, who says her pronouns are “yee/haw,” also joined a conservative attack against Algerian Olympic boxer Imane Khelif after since-proven false claims about her gender identity were spread on social media and used to promote a political agenda against trans participation in sports.

Title IX, Moms for Liberty and lies

In April, the Biden administration issued a final Title IX rule strengthening protections against sex-based harassment and clarifying that schools can’t prevent a person from using the bathroom or locker room that corresponds to their gender identity or from participating in a school program or activity consistent with their gender identity.

Since the announcement that schools had until Aug. 1 to comply or risk losing federal funding, 21 states have successfully won injunctions against enforcing the 2024 Title IX regulations.

Colorado isn’t one of those states. However, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas granted an injunction that blocks the enforcement of these new Title IX rules at schools attended by members of Moms for Liberty, among other groups like Young America’s Foundation and Female Athletes United.

The injunction means that the U.S. Dept. of Education can’t require schools to comply with the new rules, penalize institutions for failing to adhere to them, or take any other actions to enforce the regulations.

The judge instructed Moms for Liberty to submit a list of schools where its members’ children attend by July 15 to submit to the Dept. of Education. Soon after, Bradley, Daehnick and Schumé Navarro, a former Cherry Creek School District school board candidate and QAnon believer, posted calls to join the Douglas County Moms for Liberty Chapter with promises that doing so would prevent their children’s schools from implementing the changes.

To date, just over 130 Colorado schools representing 24 districts are on the U.S. Dept. of Education’s list of K-12 schools from Young America’s Foundation, Female Athletes United and Moms for Liberty declarants.

The problem for Bradley and anyone else hoping to prevent Colorado schools from allowing transgender students access to the school facilities of their choice by joining the list is that it won’t.

Colorado’s antidiscrimination law granting protections for LGBTQ+ citizens, including the right to use the bathroom associated with their gender identity in public schools, has been on the books since 2008.

It’s against state law for a public or charter school to choose to prevent a transgender student, staff member or substitute access to a facility, regardless of Title IX.

This fact hasn’t escaped all “parent’s rights” proponents. Courtney Potter, a staunch anti-vaxxer and former Thornton school board member who launched a failed state senate bid in 2022, tried to alert Navarro and others in a comment on Navarro’s Facebook post, stating, “It is extremely important to note that this DOES NOT supersede state law…

“Again, it’s important to note Title IX will be implemented, and I don’t want parents to think it won’t – trust me, I’m getting plenty of calls from parents excited, and it’s unfortunate that they don’t understand it’s still going to happen.”

Bradley responded to Potter, acknowledging the state’s anti-discrimination law. Yet, Bradley incorrectly writes that because Title IX is federal, “any school caught implementing the new Title IX changes to Title IX specifically is in violation of the federal injunction.”

According to the ACLU, “State and local laws can require schools to do more than Title IX or its regulations require — and nothing in the preliminary injunctions relieves schools of the need to comply with such state and local laws.

“Also, nothing in the preliminary injunctions prevents a school from voluntarily offering protections over and above what Title IX regulations require, as long as it uses fair procedures for all parties in a disciplinary proceeding.”

Despite no verified media reports of a female student being attacked or harassed by a transgender student in the state, Bradley and other prominent Republicans continue to falsely insist transgender bathroom and locker room use leads to harmful attacks on girls.

These statements keep coming, despite ample evidence that transgender students are the ones far more likely to suffer harm in public schools. A Washington Post analysis of FBI data found, “In states with restrictive laws, the number of hate crimes on K-12 campuses has more than quadrupled since the onset of a divisive culture war that has often centered on the rights of LGBTQ+ youth.