When I signed my daughter up for volleyball, I wanted her to learn about teamwork and dedication. I wanted her to make friends, build confidence, and come home tired and happy. Now, because of a hateful measure that will appear on Colorado’s November ballot, I find myself genuinely worried about what could happen to my daughter and to every kid who just wants to play.
Initiative 109 would require school sports teams to be designated by biological sex or as co-ed, based on what a student was assigned at birth. Supporters of this measure, including the politicians who recently argued for it in these pages, claim this is about protecting girls and preserving fairness in sports. As the father of a girl athlete, I take that seriously. But this proposal doesn鈥檛 protect my daughter. It puts her at risk.
I鈥檓 a father of two, and neither of my kids is transgender. I鈥檓 also a veteran. I served more than 20 years in the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves as a pilot and officer. I believe deeply in freedom. I鈥檝e spent my life defending it. Nothing about Initiative 109 reflects freedom. It exposes our kids to scrutiny and inserts the heavy hand of government squarely into the lives of families.
I鈥檓 6鈥�5鈥�. I鈥檓 tall, and so is my daughter. She鈥檚 strong and athletic. And under a policy like this, what happens if someone decides she looks 鈥渢oo tall鈥� or 鈥渢oo strong鈥� to be a girl? Does she get questioned? Does she have to prove who she is? Would a coach, a school official, or even another adult feel empowered to demand answers about her body just so she can play? Would I be responsible for paying to have someone invade her most private parts?
The truth is, we don鈥檛 know, because the measure itself doesn鈥檛 say. Initiative 109 is vague and poorly written, leaving critical questions unanswered about how it would actually be enforced. It simply hands broad authority to the state without clear standards or safeguards, opening the door to invasive gender inspections that put all of our kids at risk. It puts coaches in impossible positions, humiliates children in front of their peers, and perpetuates a culture of fear in youth sports.
We don鈥檛 have to imagine where this road leads. After a similar law was passed in Utah,聽a school board member聽publicly posted a photo of a 16-year-old girl on social media and implied, without any basis, that the student was transgender. The girl was not. She was a teenager who played basketball. But because of the climate that law helped create, that child needed police protection at her school. The girl’s family had to speak publicly to defend their own daughter’s identity. And that school board member, when pressed, defended herself by saying the girl had what she called a 鈥渓arger build.鈥�
This is one among many examples of the harm these policies cause to female athletes. When you write laws that treat every child as a potential suspect, you are not protecting kids – you鈥檙e endangering them. You give permission for adults to point at kids and demand answers.
In some cases, these measures may even invite abuse.
We鈥檝e all watched with horror at the well-documented abuse in women鈥檚 athletics where trusted adults in positions of authority exploited young girl athletes. Policies that open the door to questioning children about their bodies or subjecting them to inspections risk empowering the very kinds of boundary violations we should be working to prevent.
What抖阴ap especially frustrating is that this debate is being driven by politicians seeking to divide us, rather than families, coaches, and the people who are actually raising kids and protecting them. The聽proponents of this measure have even admitted聽unabashedly that this is part of a聽national effort聽to divide Coloradoans and drive turnout in the midterm elections. They鈥檙e using kids and families as pawns in a broader political agenda.
And Initiative 109 is just one piece of that. The same groups pushing this measure are also behind Initiative 110, which would restrict certain health care for transgender youth, inserting politicians into private medical decisions that belong with families and their doctors. Politicians have no place in that process.
Taken together, these measures make something clear: this is an anti-freedom effort that is not about protecting girls or girls’ sports, but expanding government control over our kids鈥� bodies and fueling a culture war at their expense.
Colorado has always believed in freedom for families to make their own decisions, the freedom to raise our children without government interference, and the freedom to live with dignity and privacy. These measures move us in the exact opposite direction.
My daughter doesn鈥檛 think about any of this when she steps onto the court. She thinks about her teammates and the next play. That抖阴ap what childhood should be. We can鈥檛 let politicians take that away.
Mike Smith is a Denver parent of two and a Navy veteran.
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