Colorado’s newly passed ban on misgendering has drawn another free-speech lawsuit, this time from a Christian bookstore whose owners object to using opposite-sex pronouns.
Born Again Used Books, a family-owned shop in Colorado Springs, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday challenging the law known as House Bill 1312 or the Kelly Loving Act, which adds misgendering and deadnaming to the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.
The result is that business owners face state investigations, cease-and-desist orders and thousands of dollars in fines if they use biologically accurate pronouns when referring to transgender customers and others.
“The store serves everyone regardless of gender identity. That includes customers who present as transgender. These customers, like anyone else, are welcome to patronize the Bookstore and purchase anything it offers for sale,” said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.
“But the Bookstore cannot speak contrary to its beliefs,” the motion said. “So the store cannot use pronouns, titles, or any other language contrary to a person’s biological sex. To do so would be to affirm the view that a person’s sex can and sometimes should be changed — a view that contradicts the Bookstore’s Christian beliefs.”
Bookstore owners Eric and Sara Smith also want to put the company’s pronoun policy in writing and post it on their website, as well as explain their Christian views on gender identity, but face a “reasonable fear” that they will be prosecuted if they do so.
The lawsuit referenced the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in 303 Creative v. Elenis, which held that Colorado’s interpretation of its anti-discrimination law violated the free-speech rights of a Christian tech designer who refused to create websites for same-sex weddings.
“As the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed, the government has no business trying to strip traditional views about sex and gender from the marketplace of ideas,” said Hal Frampton, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Conscience Initiatives.
“Nor can the state compel Coloradans to speak in ways that violate their deeply held religious beliefs,” he continued. “Born Again Used Books shouldn’t have to continually choose between violating the law and speaking consistent with its Christian beliefs.”
The complaint represents at least the third lawsuit challenging HB 1312 since Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, signed it into law on May 16.
Three days later, a coalition of right-leaning groups, including Defending Education, Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Protect Kids Colorado and Do No Harm, filed a free-speech lawsuit to block the law.
On May 27, ADF attorneys sued on behalf of XX-XY Athletics, a Denver sportswear company that stands against biological males competing in the female field based on gender identity.
Colorado Democrats said the bill was needed to strengthen protection for transgender people, but removed provisions after a public outcry that would have required courts to consider deadnaming and misgendering as forms of coercive control in child-custody cases.
“Trans rights should not be controversial. But some people make it out to be,” said Democratic state Sen. Faith Winter, one of the bill’s sponsors, at a May hearing. “We must be strong and on the side of protecting people, even when it’s uncomfortable.”
Democrats also replaced “deadnaming” and “misgendering” with “chosen name” and “how the individual chooses to be addressed.” Even so, the legislation passed with no Republican votes.
Democrats named the bill for male-born transgender Kelly Loving, a victim of the 2022 mass shooting at Club Q, a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs.
The office of Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, declined to comment on the active litigation.
