Editor’s note: The interview with Z Williams was edited for length and clarity. Comments in bold have been added for additional context. Z WILLIAMS, CO-FOUNDER AND CO-DIRECTOR of Bread and Roses Legal Center, spoke with the Denver VOICE about the escalating threats facing the trans community, recent Colorado legislation that offers greater protections, and why now is the time for allies to be “loudly, unapologetically vocal.” GILES CLASEN: What is the trans community facing right now? Z WILLIAMS: We are seeing just unprecedented levels of violence and bigotry and intolerance, at a level that previously would not be considered acceptable or even expected. It’s just awful. It’s to the point that I had to call bars to make sure that they were pro-trans before I would be willing to take my daughter there for her 21st birthday. That’s worse than Denver was 10 years ago, even 20 years ago.” CLASEN: How much of this is connected to the current political climate? WILLIAMS: It’s not about Trump, but it’s connected. Absolutely connected. When you say trans people are an enemy of the United States and broadcast that far and wide, and then you target trans health care and trans mental health care and trans kids and trans schools, what happens is people are emboldened. Folks that have big feelings about their small selves start to act out. That’s the predictable consequence of the Trump agenda. Williams pointed to a May 6 counterterrorism strategy released by the White House that effectively targets trans people and trans advocates as an enforcement priority. The memo states: “In addition to cartels and Islamist terror groups, our national (counter terrorism)activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.” CLASEN: Colorado has been pushing back, though. Can you talk about Senate Bill 18? WILLIAMS: Senate Bill 18 came to us from young trans people who changed their names and shortly after found out that their name change was now public, that anyone who wanted to could have access to that information. This is a bill that was informed both by trans kids worried about themselves and also about folks who hold multiple marginalized identities, folks who are trans and immigrants, or trans and formerly incarcerated, or in foster care. Our belief is that kids deserve privacy. And of course, trans kids are the ones who brought this issue to light for us. It came from trans kids, but there’s a lot of other kids who also need that privacy and that other measure of protection. Sometimes, kids change their name for religious reasons, because they’re a victim of a crime, or because they have changed their family arrangement. Whatever the reason, kids deserve privacy. The bill suppresses name-change records for minors, a legal distinction Williams said was deliberately made. Williams emphasized that the bill’s protections extend well beyond the trans community. CLASEN: Was there resistance to getting it passed? WILLIAMS: [Governor Jared] Polis has been a foe of most protrans legislation. WILLIAMS: The wildest thing to me is that it wasn’t even a mandatory action. It would just be considered the same as a judge might consider a parent’s drug use. Polis made it very clear that he would veto it if we included that. Governor Polis threatened to veto the bill unless a section was removed, a provision that would have required courts to consider a child’s marginalized identity, including gender, race, disability, and sexual orientation, in custody and family law decisions. CLASEN: In 2025, you helped write and pass the Kelly Loving Act. How would you describe the Kelly Loving Act to people who aren’t familiar with it? WILLIAMS: The Kelly Loving Act is the most ambitious piece of pro-trans legislation passed in the aftermath of the Trump election. It is the most robust set of protections, especially for workers and for kids. And it was created by and based on the feedback of trans people across Colorado. The Kelly Loving Act (HB25-1312) is named after Kelly Loving, a transgender woman murdered in the 2022 Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. The act is the most sweeping expansion of trans protections in Colorado history, covering workplace discrimination, school dress codes, and protection from out-ofstate legal retaliation for gender-affirming care. CLASEN: What political issues does the trans community face in Colorado right now? WILLIAMS: We have two viciously anti-trans ballot measures on the 2026 ballot in November. And we need cis people. Colorado voters will face two ballot measures in November targeting transgender rights, both put on the ballot by the conservative group Protect Kids Colorado. Initiative 109 would ban transgender kids from participating in sports aligned with their gender identity, applying to K-12 and collegiate athletics. Initiative 110 would ban genderaffirming surgery for minors and prohibit public funds or insurance coverage from paying for it. WILLIAMS: 109 is a threat to all children,” Williams said. “It opens all children up to interrogation about their genitals, about their sex assigned at birth. It leads to things like genital inspections or biological testing for any child to participate in sports.” 110 bans all gender affirming health care, which is life-saving medical care for kids, and also prohibits state medical plans, which is the primary source of funding for most trans people to access gender affirming surgeries. I wanna be very clear that the number one gender affirming surgery done on children is for cis boys who have what’s called gynecomastia. It’s a condition that causes a growth of breast tissue in children who are assigned male at birth. And the number one gender affirming surgery done on children under the age of 18 is to do top surgery for cisgender boys with gynecomastia. This idea that kids are getting all these surgeries, it’s made up. It’s a manufactured terror. CLASEN: Why can’t treatment wait until a child turns 18? WILLIAMS: Waiting until you’re 18 means hoping a kid survives to be 18. I don’t want to hope that anyone can survive the pain or endure the horrors of dysphoria to reach 18. If the goal is to wait until you’re 18, that means we’re going to see a lot of kids die before they get there. The Trevor Project’s 2025 National Survey of more than 16,000 LGBTQ+ young people found that 49% of transgender youth ages 13-18 seriously considered suicide in the past year, and 16% attempted suicide — statistically significantly higher rate than cis gender youth. CLASEN: What else are you working on at the city level? WILLIAMS: We are working with council members [Stacie] Gilmore and [Sarah] Parady, specifically to pass an ordinance that would make it so that Denver, first of all, really thinks about and limits when and why we are collecting people’s gender information. If I am getting a library card, why do you need to know the gender on my driver’s license? If I am even enrolling in the rec center, why does the rec center need to know my gender? The ordinance would make it so that Denver is not sharing information with federal law enforcement if there are any [federal actions] done for targeting gender identity. CLASEN: What can allies and community members do right now to support the trans community? WILLIAMS: Now is the time to be unapologetically loud and protrans. It’s not enough to be quietly respectful. It is time to be loudly disruptive. If you are seeing conduct, intervene. If you are able to advocate on policies, do so. We need allies to be incredibly vocal and clear that trans people are not a threat. Trans people exist, have always existed, deserve to exist, and have every right that everyone else does. DONATE And help the Denver VOICE help your neighbors. denvervoice.org/donate DENVER VOICE JUNE 2026 5
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