Colorado passed legislation on May 6, 2025, that significantly endangers religious freedom, parental rights, and free speech across the state. The Kelly Loving Act has sparked intense debate and organized opposition from Christian communities, as it is a display of government overreach into matters of faith and family.
What is the Kelly Loving Act?
Named after a victim killed in the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, this law aims to expand protections for transgender individuals under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act. While supporters say it’s necessary to protect vulnerable people from harm, the law threatens fundamental constitutional rights of Christians and other religious faiths.
Notably, the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act is the same law used to target religious liberty and free speech protections in the Masterpiece Cake Shop and 303 Creative Supreme Court cases. In each case, the Supreme Court has ruled that Colorado’s statute was hostile toward people of faith and burdened religious speech protections.
Key provisions that concern Christians
There are several key provisions that rightly concern Christians—and all religious liberty advocates.
Compelled speech requirements
Perhaps the most troubling aspect of the bill is that it requires individuals and businesses to use people’s preferred pronouns and chosen names in public settings, or else violate anti-discrimination laws. This means Christian business owners, teachers, and public employees could face legal consequences for using someone’s birth name or biologically accurate pronouns—practices that may align with their religious convictions about God’s design for male and female.
The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education called these provisions “constitutionally suspect,” noting that “forcing people to use particular language, even with the intention of inclusivity, is compelled speech, and the First Amendment generally forbids it.”
School policy changes
The law mandates significant changes to public education that directly challenge parental rights. Schools must allow students to choose from any dress code options regardless of biological sex, effectively eliminating a school’s ability to maintain gender-specific standards that reflect biological reality.
While schools with chosen name policies must make them “inclusive of all reasons” a student might adopt a different name, this effectively requires schools to affirm gender transition decisions without parental input or consent.
Why Christians should realize the dangers of the Kelly Loving Act
Christians should be aware of and praying about the dangers of the Kelly Loving Act to our ability to live out our deeply held convictions.
Constitutional rights at risk
The law redefines “gender expression” to include the use of a “chosen name, and how the individual chooses to be addressed. But the law is vague as to how this would be enforced and could potentially mean that refusing to use a “chosen name” could be in violation of state law.
The Supreme Court, however, has consistently held that the government cannot force people to express messages that violate their conscience or religious beliefs, twice ruling against Colorado in the Masterpiece Cake Shop and 303 Creative cases. The Kelly Loving Act’s speech requirements directly conflict with this established principle, creating an impossible choice for Christians between legal compliance and religious conviction.
While the bill’s specific impact on churches and Christian schools isn’t entirely clear, the broad scope of its anti-discrimination provisions raises serious concerns. Religious institutions that maintain traditional biblical teachings about sexuality and gender could face legal challenges if they refuse to comply with the state’s speech mandates.
The ERLC and Colorado Baptist Convention sent a letter to the state legislature warning that the original version of the bill “threatens the conscience rights of individuals, the relationship between parents and children, basic free speech rights for all, and will inevitably lead to conflict between church and state.” After the General Assembly passed an amended version of the bill, the ERLC and Colorado Baptist Convention sent an additional letter to Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, urging him “to veto this destructive, divisive bill that pits parents and government against each other to the detriment of children.”
What the Kelly Loving Act means for Christian families
The Kelly Loving Act will create challenges for Christian families across Colorado. Parents sending children to public schools might find those institutions required to affirm gender transition decisions that conflict with their family’s religious beliefs.
The Kelly Loving Act represents more than a policy disagreement—it’s a fundamental shift in the relationship between faith communities and government. The cost to religious liberty, parental rights, and free speech is too high.
The bill’s ultimate fate will depend now on the courts. Already, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), an ERLC partner and conservative law firm, has filed a lawsuit challenging the law on behalf of an athletic apparel company that speaks truthfully about the biological differences between men and women. Regardless of the outcome, it serves as a wake-up call for Christians about the importance of staying engaged in the democratic process, especially at state and local levels where such policies are increasingly appearing.
For Colorado Christians, now is the time for prayer, engagement, and vigilance in protecting the fundamental freedoms that allow faith communities to live according to their convictions and advocating for biblical and biological truth to protect vulnerable people from falling prey to destructive gender ideology.
