Colorado children should wait for sex-change surgery
Colorado voters decide Proposition 135 on Nov. 3, weighing whether children should face fewer safeguards against permanent surgery than adults do.
Colorado should pass Proposition 135 because children should not undergo sex-change surgery before adulthood. On Oct. 17, @Erin4Parents urged Colorado voters to vote yes on Proposition 135, writing, “Make it make sense — OR just vote Yes on Prop 135 and make it stop🛑”1.
Federal rules set age 21 as the minimum for federal funding of sterilization, according to the federal regulation. Ordinarily, at least 30 days must pass between consent and sterilization. The Colorado Sun reports that Proposition 135 defines its purpose as “treatment in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender”. The same report says the American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommended delaying gender-related breast/chest, genital and facial surgery until patients are at least 19 years old. Colorado voters decide Proposition 135 on Nov. 3, 2026, according to the Fort Collins Coloradoan’s Oct. 1 report. Why should a child face permanent surgery under a looser standard than adults in that comparison?
“Make it make sense — OR just vote Yes on Prop 135 and make it stop🛑”
Federal rules already delay adult procedures
The federal rule behind the vasectomy comparison sets conditions for federal funding of sterilization: federal financial participation is available only if the listed conditions are met2. That condition limits federal funding to adult sterilizations.
The waiting period separates consent from the procedure instead of allowing sterilization immediately. Children deserve a clear safeguard: no sex-change surgery before adulthood.
Prop 135 draws a narrow surgical line
The measure draws a line at surgery: it leaves hormone therapy, puberty blockers, counseling and social-transition support outside the ban.
Proposition 135 would prohibit doctors from performing surgeries on minors to alter their sex characteristics, the Colorado Sun reports3.
It would also bar state or federal funds, Medicaid reimbursement and insurance coverage from paying for those surgeries4.
Hormone therapy and puberty-blocking drugs fall outside the surgical prohibition, the Colorado Sun reports. Counseling and support for social transition fall outside it as well4.
The exemptions are specific: male circumcision, people born with “a medically verifiable disorder of sex development,” and treatment for acquired physical or chemical abnormalities3. The line falls at surgery. Names, clothing and counseling stay outside it, and permanent surgery on a minor’s body does not.
A surgical safeguard leaves other care alone
The claim that politicians would take over care misreads a surgery-only line Chris Cook, a Thornton father, argued at a September rally that the measure “would take personal healthcare decisions away from families and trusted medical professionals and hand them to politicians.”3
The blue book’s arguments against the measure say it “is overly broad and could interfere with medical care for both transgender and nontransgender minors.”4
A Harvard study cited by the Colorado Sun found that 2.1 transgender teens per 100,000 teens in that age group had gender-related surgery. The study covered ages 15 through 17 and measured surgeries in 2019. Denver Health says it stopped surgeries in early 2025, the Colorado Sun reports3.
The measure leaves families and doctors every decision short of surgery, and it takes the permanent one off the table for a child.
Vote yes on Proposition 135
Vote yes.
A majority vote would put the surgery ban into state law.
A no vote leaves current law in place. Surgeries that alter minors' biological sex characteristics would remain legal, and public and private health insurance programs could continue covering those procedures4.
The state’s nonpartisan voter guide calls the fiscal impact minimal, the Colorado Sun reports3. Adults face age rules around procedures that permanently alter the body. Children should not face the same permanent choice before adulthood. A yes vote keeps sex-change surgery off the table for minors.
Sources
- @Erin4Parents on X, 2026-10-17: Colorado Medicaid won’t cover a vasectomy until 21. Silicone breast implants are not approved until 22. Female genital mutilation is illegal… But in CO, we can cut off the healthy body parts of CHILDREN… Make it make sense — OR just vote Yes on Prop 135 and, 2026-10-17
- 42 CFR § 441.253 - Sterilization of a mentally competent individual aged 21 or older. | Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (e-CFR) | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute
- Proposition 135 explained: Colorado would ban gender-related surgeries for youth
- Colorado Proposition 135 would ban sex-change surgeries for minors
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