Reflections on My First Legislative Session

On May 7, Colorado concluded its 2025 legislative session, the four-month period in which the state’s General Assembly can pass new laws. 

This was the first session I have been involved in as Rocky Mountain Equality’s policy analyst. This work isn’t theoretical. It’s about real lives, real families, and real consequences. And this year, we made real change happen. 

It was the most active legislative session in Rocky Mountain Equality’s history, with our team advocating for or against sixteen different bills. In my role, I spent many hours monitoring the legislature and providing research and resources as bills related to LGBTQ+ people and our lives moved through the process. 

Our organization advocated for efforts to ensure that transgender and non-binary people are accurately represented on their death certificates, enhance gender-affirming healthcare access, establish new legal protections for gender identity and expression, codify same-sex marriage, defend LGBTQ+ voters, protect immigrant rights, and more. 

At the same time, we spoke out forcefully against explicit attacks on the freedoms of Coloradans – bills that sought to criminalize parents who support their trans children, ban age-appropriate gender-affirming care for youth, and reshape Colorado into a state that is hostile to its LGBTQ+ community members. 

By any measure, this legislative session was successful for our community, with Colorado set to enact laws that advance equality and the rejections of those that would allow discrimination. 

However, all of this was done as the federal government continues to adopt horrifying policies targeting LGBTQ+ people. Ceasing recognition of transgender identities in government agencies, eliminating anti-discrimination programs and policies, and attacking LGBTQ+ healthcare are just a few examples. 

As the session ends, I’m left with mixed emotions – gratitude for the hard-fought rights that our community has gained in Colorado, and outrage at how our civil liberties have been viciously attacked by the federal administration and several state governments. Hope from the legislators that have affirmed LGBTQ+ rights, and despair from those who denounced them. Pride in what we have accomplished, and disappointment in what still has not been done.

I am honored to be a part of this organization’s work, and I know that we are helping to make Colorado a better place. Being in this fight every day was harder than I expected. It meant witnessing bigotry up close, hearing dehumanizing rhetoric in legislative chambers, and knowing that lives were hanging in the balance. But I was never alone. My colleagues at Rocky Mountain Equality showed me what it means to lead with courage and compassion. This work is about love – love for our people, our community, and the future we believe in.

As I look toward the 2026 session, I carry with me everything this year taught me — the grit it takes to stand up in hard moments, and the hope that comes from fighting alongside people who believe in something better.

We are not done. The work ahead will be difficult, but it is worth it.