Colorado passes three child-protection ballot measures as mother Erin Lee hails voter verdict

Voters in the US state of Colorado have passed three ballot measures on child protection in the midterm elections. Erin Lee, executive director and co-founder of the grassroots group Protect Kids Colorado, which led the campaign, said the results show that support for protecting children cuts across party lines.

For Lee, the campaign's success is deeply personal. She said that more than five and a half years ago, her 12-year-old daughter was secretly socially transitioned in her sixth-grade classroom. That experience, she said, turned her from a self-described left-leaning Democrat into a prominent voice in the parental-rights movement.

She said, "I co-founded Protect Kids Colorado because, five-and-a-half years ago, my 12-year-old daughter was secretly transitioned in her sixth-grade classroom." She alleged that after her daughter came home and declared she was suddenly a boy, the family questioned the school and the school district turned against them.

Lee said her daughter eventually moved past the confusion and asked her mother to speak up for others who might find themselves in a similar situation. She said it took almost a year to get through it, a period that included suicidal ideation and estrangement from people in their lives who disagreed with them about not affirming her.

Protect Kids Colorado championed three ballot initiatives. Proposition 133 increases penalties for child sex trafficking to life in prison without parole. Proposition 134 would generally require students to compete on school sports teams corresponding to their biological sex. Proposition 135 would prohibit certain gender-transition surgeries for minors.

Proposition 133 passed with approximately 62 percent support, while Proposition 134 received roughly 52 percent and Proposition 135 also received about 52 percent. In the same election, Coloradans re-elected Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper in a landslide with 60 percent of the vote.

Lee said, "Colorado broke ranks where they voted for Democrats. They also voted yes on these commonsense child protection measures." She added, "I think that really speaks volumes to the fact that gender ideology is not a winning issue." She described the result as evidence of a broader cultural shift.

Lee said the campaign relied on more than 3,300 petition circulators, over 1,900 notaries and support from more than 1,000 churches. She claimed opponents spent more than $5 million, outspending her organization by more than 20 to 1. "This really was a movement of the people," she said.

Lee had earlier sued educators at Wellington Middle-High School in the Poudre School District, with the assistance of the America First Policy Institute and Illumine Legal. The claims in that lawsuit were dismissed by the US District Court for the District of Colorado. That dismissal was affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in April 2025, and the US Supreme Court denied the petition for review in October 2025.

A spokesperson for Poudre School District said the district does not comment on individual students, consistent with federal student privacy law. The spokesperson added that at no stage of the litigation was the district found liable.

In the same period, voters in Washington state appear to have passed the first-ever ballot measure separating boys' and girls' sports. Colorado Governor-elect Phil Weiser has also signalled possible changes to the girls' sports ballot measure, according to reports.

Lee said, "The voters have spoken. We've come a long way culturally for this to have passed." She believes the Colorado vote could inspire similar efforts elsewhere.