(The Lion) — The owners of Born Again Used Books in Colorado Springs are suing the state of Colorado, challenging its new law requiring the use of transgender language.
The July 16 lawsuit alleges the state’s “Kelly Loving Act” violates the owners’ First and Fourteenth Amendment rights.
The law, passed in May, contains a provision requiring any place open to the public to use a person’s “preferred” pronouns, names and titles, or face potential discrimination claims.
The law’s supporters argue it codifies basic human rights for transgender people.
Critics disagree, calling it government overreach threatening parental rights and free speech rights of state business owners and schools.
“Real civil rights don’t take away rights from others. We will not stay silent,” Jim Daly, founder of Focus on the Family wrote on X before the legislation passed. “As the political leaders of Colorado prepare to vote on legislation that threatens the well-being of parents and children, we stand firm in truth. We call on our leaders to do what is right – and we pray that God would intervene and expose every plan set against families.”
Focus on the Family is a Christian ministry teaching biblical pro-life and pro-family values to “equip parents, children, and spouses to thrive in an ever-changing, ever-more-complicated world,” according to its website.
While the bookstore owners say they will gladly sell their books to anyone, they contend the new law unconstitutionally compels speech going against their deeply held religious beliefs. They believe God created two genders, male and female, which cannot be changed. Accordingly, they also believe a person’s biology determines their gender.
In the suit, the plaintiffs also assert the law violates their right to freely express their deeply held religious beliefs and affirm basic biological facts when dealing with employees or the public.
“The government cannot force Americans to say things they do not believe. Compelled speech – particularly on matters of conscience and belief – is unconstitutional,” Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Senior Counsel Hal Frampton explained in a press release.
ADF is representing the bookstore owners in the suit, which reportedly seeks temporary and permanent injunctions against enforcement of the law and to have it declared unconstitutional.
“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,” Frampton continued. “Nor can the state compel Coloradans to speak in ways that violate their deeply held religious beliefs. Born Again Used Books shouldn’t have to continually choose between violating the law and speaking consistent with its Christian beliefs.”
Nicole Hunt, writing for Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen, agrees, stressing the issue is bigger than the bookstore.
“This case is not just about whether a bookstore is forced to use ‘preferred’ pronouns and titles. Rather, it’s about whether Americans have the right to speak according to their conscience,” she writes. “For many families concerned about government overreach into religious beliefs, especially in education, the outcome of this case could either affirm their rights or threaten a new era of state-mandated ideology.”
