Colorado legislators introduced two bills Friday that would add new legal protections for transgender people and expand insurance coverage for gender-affirming health care.

House Bill 25-1309 prohibits health insurance plans from denying or limiting medically necessary gender-affirming health care services. Care is considered medically necessary under the bill if a health care provider determines it to be so. The bill also exempts testosterone from state prescription drug use monitoring program tracking requirements.

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Gender-affirming care, endorsed by both the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, can range from non-medical interventions, such as haircuts and name changes, to services such as hormone therapy and surgery to support the patient’s gender identity. The bill focuses on medical care, including psychiatric, surgical or therapeutic supplies and services. It would also include coverage for cosmetic and reconstructive surgeries.

“HB25-1309 demonstrates Colorado’s commitment to fairness, equity, and the right to make our own decisions about our bodies,” Nadine Bridges, executive director of LGBTQ+ advocacy organization One Colorado, said in a statement. “No one should have to fight for the health care they need. This bill ensures our community has the protection and stability we all deserve.”

Colorado’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program operates under the Department of Regulatory Agencies and is meant to help reduce drug misuse. Pharmacies upload information on who is prescribed controlled substances, which can then be accessed by DORA, law enforcement, other practitioners and pharmacists, and patients themselves. HB-1309 would block archived reports of testosterone prescriptions from view to protect the privacy of people who take it for gender-affirming care.

The bill is sponsored by Representative Brianna Titone, an Arvada Democrat, Representative Kyle Brown, a Boulder Democrat, Senator Lisa Cutter, a Wheat Ridge Democrat, and Senator Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat. It was assigned to the House Health and Human Services Committee, where it will go through its first bill hearing.

School policies

House Bill 25-1312, dubbed the Kelly Loving Act in honor of a transgender woman killed during the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs, adds various new legal protections for transgender people in education, family legal matters, and public accommodation.

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Colorado courts would be prohibited from complying with orders or laws from other states that threaten to take children away from parents or caregivers who allowed the child access to gender-affirming care. When a judge is hearing a child custody case, the court would have to consider deadnaming, misgendering or threatening to publish information related to an individual or child’s gender-affirming care as a form of “coercive control.” Deadnaming — when someone calls a transgender person by their previous name — and misgendering would also be defined as discriminatory acts in the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

The bill would require that schools, if they establish policies related to chosen names, must include all reasons that a student might choose to use a name that’s different from their legal name. Dress code policies must also not include any rules based on gender, and each student must be permitted to abide by any variation of the dress code based on gender.

Any form administered by a public entity that requires an individual to disclose their name would have to include the option to provide a legal name and a chosen name. If someone’s chosen name differs from their legal name, the public entity would have to use the chosen name on all subsequent forms.

The Kelly Loving Act is sponsored by Representative Lorena García, an Adams County Democrat, Representative Rebekah Stewart, a Lakewood Democrat, Senator Faith Winter, a Westminster Democrat, and Senator Chris Kolker, a Littleton Democrat. The bill was assigned to the House Judiciary Committee, where it will get its first hearing.