Colorado voters are poised to protect girls’ sports and stop sex-change surgeries. Weiser is eyeing a rewrite

Colorado voters are poised to keep boys out of girls’ sports and to stop sex-change surgeries on minors^{2, 3}, and Gov.-elect Phil Weiser is already talking about changing what they chose. Weiser said, “We’re going to have to take a look at these anti-trans measures and what adjustments are necessary and appropriate.”¹ Of Proposition 134, he added, “I don't believe it would be acceptable to Colorado to have every student athlete have to go through full body examinations.”⁴

The Colorado Sun reported both measures were leading with about 52% of the vote Thursday midday. OutKick, citing Ballotpedia’s unofficial Thursday-morning results, listed Proposition 134 at 52.66%⁴. Movement Voter Project listed Proposition 135 at 52.3%, with 90% counted⁵. The Denver Post reported that supporters of Propositions 134 and 135 claimed victory Wednesday evening while the Associated Press had not called either measure².

Weiser’s position was set long before the count. In June, he had already said that if voters approved the measures, “The legislature is going to have to fix it and provide a much more human and sound approach.”¹ The Colorado Sun reported that Democrats were headed toward supermajorities in both legislative chambers, and House Speaker hopeful Jennifer Bacon said she was working with opponents on legislative next steps.

“We’re going to have to take a look at these anti-trans measures and what adjustments are necessary and appropriate.”

Voters backed sex-based teams and protections

So what exactly would Weiser be adjusting? Here is what Colorado families are backing. Proposition 134 would require school athletic teams from elementary school through college to be designated male, female or coed, OutKick reports. Boys could not play on girls’ teams, and a girl could join a boys’ team when no equivalent girls’ team exists. The measure defines girls and boys by reproductive organs and leaves enforcement to the state’s education commissioner, according to The Colorado Sun¹. Proposition 135 restricts surgeries intended to alter a minor’s biological sex characteristics⁴.

“For years, Colorado families asked their elected representatives to take these concerns seriously, only to see legislation repeatedly rejected at the Capitol,” said former state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, who chairs Protect Kids Colorado. Megan Burke, a co-founder of Athletes for Action, said she felt “relieved, especially as a mom of two girls.”² The Colorado Sun reports that similar sports laws have passed in 27 states¹. Colorado families are asking for what most of the country already has.

A simple majority can undo voter statutes

Weiser’s talk of adjustments has teeth because of how these measures reached the ballot. They are statutes, not constitutional amendments, and The Colorado Sun reports they “can be overturned or tweaked with a simple majority vote of the state legislature.” The Denver Post adds that lawmakers customarily have to pass enabling legislation before a voter-approved statute takes effect². And the same election handed Democrats supermajorities in both the state House and Senate¹.

The work has already started. State Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat seeking to become House speaker, said she is working with opponents of the ballot measures to think through legislative next steps¹. Weiser supplied the justification: “sometimes, something is passed and it is incomplete. It is not administrable.”² When a law’s opponents sit at the table for its next steps, the voters’ version is the one at risk.

The measure does not require body exams

His privacy warning does not justify rewriting a measure that prescribes no examination method. The measure leaves verification procedures to individual schools and districts⁴, OutKick reports; it does not mandate the full-body exams Weiser warns about. If each district chooses its own method, whose mandatory exams is Weiser warning about?

Erin Lee of Protect Kids Colorado answered him directly: “No one is advocating for invasive examinations of children, nor have they occurred anywhere in the majority of states that already have this law.”¹ Burke noted that sports governing bodies have already worked this out: “We’re not reinventing the wheel here.”² A problem the law does not create gives lawmakers no reason to rewrite it.

Lawmakers must implement the measures as written

Even institutions that opposed these measures say the law binds them. A Denver Public Schools spokesperson said that while the district did not support the propositions, it is “obligated to follow state law.”² The governor-elect should be held to the same standard.

Lee accused Weiser of trying to “circumvent democracy” by disguising a rewrite as a “necessary administrative fix.”¹ “Weiser doesn’t get to celebrate the will of the voters when it puts him in office and disregard that same will when it produces a result he doesn’t like,” she said.

The Erin for Parental Rights account warned against undermining voters’ decision⁶: “This victory was step ONE, not the finish line.” “We the People are just getting started. And anyone contemplating undermining the voters' decision would be making a serious mistake to underestimate us.”

The Denver Post reports that Weiser takes office in January and Democrats will control both chambers². Every enabling bill, and whatever comes out of Bacon’s discussions with opponents about legislative next steps¹, has to meet one test. Burke said the measure should take effect as written if voters approved it. That means girls’ teams for girls and no sex-change surgeries on Colorado’s children.

Sources

1. Democrats plan tweaks to conservative measures on trans youth - The Colorado Sun
2. Phil Weiser says enacting anti-trans, fentanyl measures is open question
3. Colorado lawmaker says 'nothing is off the table' if transgender youth measures pass
4. JACKSON THOMPSON: Colorado Gov-elect Phil Weiser signals possible changes to girls' sports ballot measure | OutKick
5. Colorado – Proposition 135: 2026 election results | Movement Voter Project
6. @Erin4Parents on X, 2026-11-05: LET ME BE CLEAR: We are on OFFENSE, not defense. Phil Weiser can throw hissy fits and be an election denier all he wants. WE THE PEOPLE WON. Colorado voters spoke loud and clear, cutting through millions in opposition spending and misinformation. Coloradans, 2026-11-05