Colorado House and Senate members’ recent actions to suppress and chill speech during public comment time on HB24-1071, dubbed “Tiara’s Law,” represent an alarming assault on First Amendment rights.
That’s why Institute for Free Speech attorneys filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the group Gays Against Groomers, the Rocky Mountain Women’s Network, and individuals from those groups affected by this attempt to shut down debate over transgender legislation.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, names Colorado State Representatives Lorena Garcia, Mike Weissman, Leslie Herod, and State Senators Julie Gonzales and Dafna Michaelson Jenet as having unlawfully restricted or chilled speech related to trans issues, particularly as it pertains to debate over what its sponsors called “Tiara’s Law.”
During recent hearings on the proposed law, Dr. Rich Guggenheim of the organization Gays Against Groomers and Christina Goeke of the Rocky Mountain Women’s Network attempted to express their opposition to the bill and dissent from transgender ideology, only for defendants to chill or suppress their speech.
In a particularly egregious example of unconstitutional viewpoint-based censorship, the Senate Judiciary Committee erased portions of Goeke’s testimony from the official audio record of its hearing on the bill.
To read the complaint in Gays Against Groomers, et al. v. Garcia, et al., click here. To read our full press release, click here.
