Few trans students play school sports in Colorado. A 2026 ballot measure would ban them.

She started playing basketball in Colorado in fourth grade. 

Basketball was her whole life, her mother said. She made all of her friends through the teams she played on throughout her childhood. She spent her high school career on the girl’s basketball team, an average player, who played just for her love of the sport. 

“She was not setting any records. She was not being recruited, scouted,” her mother said. “She just played because she loved to play.”

But if a measure on Colorado’s ballot in November passes, students like the daughter will never have the chance to play. 

She is transgender. Proposition 134 would prevent transgender children from participating in school sports. It aims to restrict which teams students play on based on their “biological reproductive system.”

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“I honestly can’t imagine what her life would have been like without (basketball), because I personally don’t think she would have had healthy outlets, especially when somebody’s trying to legislate you out of existence,” the mother said. 

The measure would add language in state statute to define boys and girls based on physical anatomy, excluding transgender people. Sports teams sponsored by schools or athletic associations would be required to expressly designate those teams for men, women or co-ed participation. Schools and their athletic departments would be required to adopt policies implementing the requirements of the initiative.

It’s one of two ballot measures that seek to restrict the rights of transgender children backed by Protect Kids Colorado, an organization led by prominent anti-LGBTQ+ activist Erin Lee. Lee did not respond before publication to Newsline’s questions about the goals of the measure and how it would be implemented. 

Two anti-trans ballot measures will appear on 2026 Colorado ballot

The family requested anonymity because of safety concerns. Newsline is withholding the name of the school and the family’s hometown, since that information could reveal their identities and jeopardize the family’s safety. After someone doxed the family and outed the daughter online, they received a high volume of violent threats. The experience changed their “entire world,” adding the need for increased security protocols for their family as well as other players on the high school team, the mother said.

“To say it was turned upside down is an understatement,” she said. 

Almost certain court challenge

Families Not Politics, which opposes the ballot measure, is led by LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations including One Colorado, Rocky Mountain Equality, the Transgender Law Center and Inside Out Youth Services, as well as Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and Cobalt, an abortion-rights organization. Dozens of other organizations from around the state and Democratic elected officials also oppose the measure. 

Andrew Ortiz, an attorney with the Transgender Law Center, said Proposition 134 would encourage “intense scrutiny” of young people’s bodies and identities, particularly Black and brown girls. The measure conflicts with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, will open schools up to avoidable litigation, and will “almost certainly” be challenged in court if approved.  

“Beyond being discriminatory and divisive, Prop 134 would create unnecessary confusion and conflict,” Ortiz said in a statement. 

At a Families Not Politics press conference last week, Tee MacDonald, a retired Denver Public Schools teacher, said she watched students benefit from participation on sports teams for decades. They built confidence, discipline and friendships, she said. 

“Sports can be one of the most meaningful parts of a student’s journey,” MacDonald said. “Kids should not have to go through invasive and humiliating processes just to participate, belong and be part of a team.”

Jax Gonzalez, political director at One Colorado, said Proposition 134 is “so poorly written” and vague that it’s unclear what implementation of the measure would entail and what policies school districts would need to create. And if a majority of Colorado voters approve the measure, it would take effect Jan. 1 — a less than two month turnaround. 

The definitions of sex and gender in the measure would mean a school cannot rely on their own records or a student’s birth certificate to determine a child’s sex, Gonzalez said. This could mean more than just trans children will be subjected to whatever verification process schools select, they added. 

The mother also said the measure would harm all children and interfere with all parents’ abilities to make decisions for their own kids. 

“What if your son has long hair? What if your daughter has short hair? When your kid gets pulled in for an inspection to see what genitalia they have, it’s going to be too late,” she said. “You’re going to be screaming because you don’t want that to happen to your family member. You’ve already decided to do it to mine.”

Gonzalez, who is trans, said voters who are undecided on the measure should know that it’s OK to have concerns and to not understand everything about transgender people’s identities, healthcare and participation in sports. But there are already policies and rules in place, through the Colorado High School Activities Association, for example, to make sure sports are accessible and safe for all children. Those rules are best when established at the local level, they said.

“Instead of a blanket law across the state, we need to continue to allow the local school districts, local families, the ones who actually know their children, to be involved in these decisions instead of taking it away from them,” Gonzalez said.

‘Just a goofy looking kiddo with ponytails’

When she was younger, a close friend of the daughter played basketball through a recreation league. The family went to a game, and the daughter immediately wanted to try the sport. The mother spoke with the coach, who invited her to sign her daughter up. She had already socially transitioned at a young age, and the coach knew she was trans, so she joined the girl’s team. 

“She was just a goofy looking kiddo with ponytails,” the mother said. “She was just like all the other girls.”

That was the start of what would become a nearly 10-year basketball career. She played on recreation leagues, club teams, and middle school and high school teams, and each was completely receptive to her participating on the girl’s team, her mother said. By high school, she played basketball almost year-round.

For most of that time, no complaints or concerns about her being trans arose. It wasn’t something she hid, and parents and coaches, who all knew she is trans, did not mind her playing with the other girls in school, her mother said. Her teammates became like family. 

“The core group of these girls were with each other through thick and thin … just all the things that teenage girls go through, they went through these together on and off the court,” she said.

Her participation on the girl’s basketball team in high school didn’t mean another girl couldn’t be on the team — everyone who wanted to join made the team, the mother said. 

As soon as she got on the court to play, the daughter could drop the stress of the world outside of basketball, her mother said, and she was always “the happiest kid on the court.” Of all the games her daughter played between fourth grade and high school, she missed only three, the mother said. 

The mother wants voters in Colorado to remember not to lose their humanity when voting on Proposition 134. The kids it will harm can’t vote, and they also can’t speak out about what it would mean for them because of ongoing national attacks on trans kids. 

“These are children. You are legislating a child’s right to exist,” the mother said. “We’re supposed to be their protectors. We’re supposed to teach them to not bully. We’re supposed to teach them (to) be proud of who you are. This takes all of that away. Adults are taking this away from kids.”

Online threats

CHSAA, the governing body of school sports in Colorado, doesn’t track transgender student athletes in Colorado, and there isn’t clear data on the number in Colorado. The mother said that after being in the community so long she can count on two hands the number of transgender student athletes in Colorado. If the measure passes, “these kids will be devastated.”

“It is their life. It is their mental health. It is their identity. It’s their friendship group,” she said. “And to be able to have that today, and to know every day these kids right now are wondering, ‘Is this my last season?’”

The thought of someone targeting her daughter for being a trans athlete never left the mother’s mind throughout her basketball career, she said. Basketball is a “brutal” sport with lots of physical contact, and after the online threats against her — from someone not connected to the school or sport — she said her daughter had her “head on a swivel” worrying about how anyone might scrutinize her gameplay. 

“She was so scared to play how she had been, because one wrong push … somebody’s recording and puts it online, and then all of a sudden the narrative changes even worse,” the mother said. “These were literally the last (times) her feet were going to touch that hardwood, and to have it end like this is pretty cruel.”

Protect Kids Colorado is backing two other initiatives: One would increase mandated prison sentences for anyone convicted of child sex trafficking and one would prohibit gender-affirming surgeries on minors. Colorado’s election is Nov. 3.

Several conservative-leaning school districts in Colorado sued the state and the Colorado High School Activities Association last year, seeking a court order to prevent them from investigating schools over their policies that ban trans student athletes. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit in August. The state has not penalized any districts with policies that exclude trans kids from sports, and CHSAA agreed in a 2025 settlement not to, either, according to Chalkbeat. 

President Donald Trump signed an executive order shortly after returning to office in 2025 that threatens federal funding for any school that allows transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued to block the order in April 2025, and the case is ongoing.

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