This November, Colorado voters decide Initiative 109 for themselves — a measure that would require K-12 and college sports teams to be divided by biological sex, not gender identity. It qualified for the ballot with about 169,000 signatures, roughly 44,000 more than required.
This isn’t hypothetical for our neighbors. Colorado Springs District 11, Academy District 20, and several other districts sued over this last year and settled with the state athletic association in December — those districts can now keep biological-sex-only teams without being sanctioned, while the rest of the state waits on this vote to settle it everywhere else.
So before I tell you where I land: what does a fair season look like to you — for the girl trying to make varsity, and for every kid who just wants to play?
I’ll be voting yes on 109. Girls’ sports exist as their own category because, without one, most girls get physically outmatched before the season even starts — that’s not a knock on anyone, it’s the entire reason a girls’ division exists in the first place. If it didn’t matter, we wouldn’t need two divisions at all.
Being clear about that doesn’t require being unkind to any kid, and I don’t think it has to be. Colorado’s other measure this fall, Initiative 110, deals with a completely different question — medical care for minors — and I’d rather keep the two separate than treat them as one issue. This page is about who gets a fair season.
Paid for by Ray Roll for District 31, LLC — registered with the Colorado Secretary of State. · Colorado House District 31 · Thornton, CO