First they came for the teachers. Then they came for the counselors. Now they’re coming for everyone – most notably parents.

Already, teachers across the country have been coerced into using kids’ arbitrary transgender names and pronouns, and have been fired for not doing so. Professional counselors have been banned from counseling against gender identity changes.

Now a bill approved by the state House earlier this month and currently in the Senate would require all of Colorado society – even parents in the home – to abide by kids’ preferred gender identities, names and pronouns.

Under HB25-1312, known as the “Kelly Loving Act,” parents could lose custody for “misgendering” or “deadnaming” their children – basically forcing them to strictly obey their children when it comes to their perceived gender identity.

“The bill would make using a person’s name given at birth or using a person’s biologically correct pronouns discriminatory actions under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act,” reports The Baptist Press.

This is undiluted madness, distilled totalitarianism. It’s a power grab that would make a diehard Bolshevik blush.

The bill not only shreds the First Amendment right to freedom of speech, but of religion. It seeks to force a Christian parent – as well as the religious butcher, baker and candlestick maker – to go along with something they believe is morally wrong and repugnant.

Moreover, if a government can make all bow at the altar of transgenderism, what more can it compel us to do?

“Families in Colorado are at ‘threat level midnight,’” warns The Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, a Colorado nonprofit promoting biblical principles of marriage, family and child development. “If this bill passes the House and Senate, Colorado fathers and mothers must use a child’s ‘preferred pronouns.’ …

“The stakes could not be higher in Colorado at present. Christians in Colorado (and beyond) should pray for God’s intervention. In addition, we should lift our voices concerning the ‘Kelly Loving Act.’ …

“There is everything to lose in this political battle. If the government restricts parents from raising their kids, the family – as made by God – will cease to function. …

“These developments in Colorado remind us that the church cannot opt out of politics. God has not called us to be broccoli in the freezer, hidden away, alone, waiting to be plucked from the world. God has called us to be “salt and light,” lovingly engaged in the upheavals of our communities and nation (Matthew 5:13-16).”

The bill “opens the door for all parents to potentially have their children forcibly removed by the state if they’re not willing to affirm their child’s mental health distress,” Colorado mom Erin Lee tells Fox News.

Lee and California mom Erin Friday both had daughters who “once identified as boys, but neither mom affirmed that belief and their daughters eventually stopped identifying as transgender,” Fox reported.

“This bill,” Friday told Fox, “will not only determine that parents like Erin and I are abusers – both of us had Child Protective Services come to our home when we refused to call our daughter males – but this bill also affects the press and its freedom of the press, and it will require them to use the chosen name of a child, how they choose it, and any adult,” Friday told Fox.

“Under the guise of ‘protecting’ minors who claim transgender status,” warns liberty-loving 50-plus organization The Association of Mature American Citizens (AMAC), “Democrats in Colorado are on the verge of passing a new law that would strip away parental rights – potentially even taking kids away from parents – and effectively criminalize Christian teachings on gender.”

The bill “sets a dangerous precedent by punishing those who live out their biblical convictions,” Greg Schaller, director of the Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University, told The Christian Post.

People of faith have been called on by religious leaders to pray about the bill and advocate for its defeat.

Indeed, the bill’s provisions “are nothing short of an attack on human dignity, people of faith, and anyone who questions the ever-changing cultural definitions of sexuality,” reads a joint letter to Colorado senators from the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention and Colorado Baptist General Convention.

“Should this bill become law, it threatens the conscience rights of individuals, the relationship between parents and children, basic free speech rights for all, and will inevitably lead to conflict between church and state. …

“Is such animus toward people of faith the kind of legacy you want to leave for Colorado?”