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Proposition 134: Male and Female Participation in School and Collegiate Sports

Statewide — all of Colorado

General election · Tuesday, November 3, 2026

  • Placed on the ballot by citizen initiative. The Blue Book lists 14 statewide measures on the November 3, 2026 ballot.[1][2]
  • Campaign-finance complaint (allegation, not a finding): a complaint filed Sept. 11 by Barbara Cardell, program director of the Positive Women's Network, alleges that the Protect Kids Colorado and Protect Our Children issue committees did not report petition-circulation work by Taylor Petition Management as payments or in-kind contributions for the Proposition 134 and 135 petitions (Colorado Politics, Sept. 22). Protect Kids Colorado board member Kevin Lundberg told Colorado Politics the organizers are cooperating with the Secretary of State's office and “Our intention is to be as transparent as we possibly can.”[7]

The question on the ballot

Shall there be a change to the Colorado Revised Statutes creating new law restricting participation in all K-12 and collegiate school sports based on the participant's sex as determined by certain aspects of their biological reproductive system, and, in connection therewith, requiring a school, institution of higher education, or athletic association to designate each school or intramural athletic team or sport as male, female, or coeducational; only allowing participants to compete on the team or sport of their designated sex or to compete on a coeducational team; creating an exception to allow a female to participate on a male-designated team or sport if there is no female team available; prohibiting a government entity, licensing or accrediting organization, or athletic association from entertaining a complaint, opening an investigation, or taking other adverse action against a school for maintaining separate teams or sports for females; and providing the commissioner of education with the authority to enforce the proposed initiative for K-12 school districts?[1]

Requires every school-based team, sport and intramural (public, charter, private and religious schools from elementary through college) to be designated male, female or coeducational, with participants competing only on the team matching their biological sex (defined by the type of reproductive cells the body is organized to produce) or on a coeducational team; allows a female to join a male team if no female team exists; bars investigation or penalty of a school for keeping female-only teams; requires each school or district to adopt a policy; and gives the Commissioner of Education enforcement authority over K-12 districts. It does not apply to youth leagues operating separately from schools. Fiscal impact per the Blue Book: indeterminate added Department of Education workload and legal costs; minimal costs for schools and districts to update policies.[1]

A YES vote means

Means that all school-based athletic teams and sports must be designated as being for biological males or biological females only, or as mixed, and requires schools and school districts to adopt policies on sex eligibility for sports.

A NO vote means

Means that individual schools, school districts, and athletic associations may continue to set their own policies in alignment with current state and federal law about who is eligible to participate on a team or in a sport.

The law today

Per the Blue Book: the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act prohibits discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations based on sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, and public K-12 schools and colleges may not exclude students from extracurricular activities that match their gender identity. The Colorado High School Activities Association recognizes transgender athletes' right to participate; in December 2025 CHSAA settled a federal lawsuit by eight schools and districts, allowing schools to keep separate teams for biological males and females without CHSAA penalty (the CADA portion of the suit continues). NCAA rules limit women's competition to athletes assigned female at birth. Federally, Executive Order 14201 (Feb. 2025) directs agencies to read Title IX as barring biological males from female-designated teams, and in June 2026 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Title IX permits states to maintain separate sports based on biological sex.[1]

Official fiscal estimate

Per the Blue Book: the Colorado Department of Education faces indeterminate added workload and legal costs (via the Department of Law) if a district is intentionally out of compliance and the Commissioner must act; state higher-education institutions will have costs to adopt or update athletic policies, assumed paid from institutional revenue; schools, districts and charter schools face minimal costs to update and implement policies, with possible legal costs if the state takes remedial action.[1]

Read the full text of the measure ↗

Arguments made for

  • Blue Book argument for: "Females should be able to compete against other females." It adds that the measure "creates a consistent, statewide standard for participation on female teams."[1]
  • Blue Book argument for: "Allowing biological males to participate on female teams or in female sports jeopardizes the safety and physical and emotional boundaries of female athletes."[1]

Arguments made against

  • Blue Book argument against: "The measure does not protect fairness; it turns athletic eligibility into a body inspection and manufactures new grounds for discrimination."[1]
  • Blue Book argument against: "School sports should be a space where all kids can build confidence, health, and belonging and have the opportunity to learn teamwork, leadership, and goal setting."[1]

On record in support

  • Protect Kids Colorado: sponsor and registered supporting issue committee; led by executive director Erin Lee (Colorado Sun).[3][4]
  • Protect Our Children: registered supporting issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]
  • Colorado's Catholic bishops: reported by the Colorado Sun as organizing signature-gathering drives for Protect Kids Colorado's three measures.[4]

On record in opposition

  • Families Not Politics: registered opposing issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]
  • No on 134 and 135: registered opposing issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]
  • Protect Trans Kids: registered opposing issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]
  • The People's No: registered opposing issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]
  • Vote Common Sense: registered opposing issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]
  • People for a Fair Colorado: registered opposing issue committee (Secretary of State list).[3]

Campaign money

Supporting: Protect Kids Colorado had raised $160,000 and Protect Our Children had reported no contributions (Colorado Politics, Sept. 25). Opposing: Families Not Politics had raised about $1.7 million through Oct. 13, with major donors including the ACLU, One Colorado and its nonprofit campaign arm, COLOR and Merle Chambers (Colorado Sun); The People's No had raised $200,000 (Colorado Sun); No on 134 and 135 had raised $867 (Colorado Politics, Sept. 25).[5][6]

Research notes & limits

Source: the official 2026 Blue Book (Legislative Council Staff, nonpartisan), which gives the ballot title, the 'what your vote means' text, an analysis with arguments for and against, and the fiscal impact. Its 'for' and 'against' arguments are the staff's own summaries of the main arguments on each side, not statements from named campaigns; the booklet points to the Secretary of State's page for supporting and opposing organizations, which was not reviewed here. Ballotpedia is cited only for the certified-measure count. Ballotpedia notes a separate road-funding initiative was certified but withdrawn after its proponents reached an agreement with the state, so it is not on the ballot. The petition-reporting complaint is unresolved at the time of research. See the Amendment 81 note on finance sourcing.

Sources · 7

Researched 2026-10-19. Green citations are official government records.

  1. 1.2026 State Ballot Information Booklet (Blue Book) · Colorado Legislative Council Staff · 2026-09-10 Official record
  2. 2.Colorado 2026 ballot measures · Ballotpedia · 2026-10-18 Reference
  3. 3.Amendments and Propositions on the 2026 Ballot: information and contacts (certified measures, registered issue committees) · Colorado Secretary of State · 2026-10-19 Official record
  4. 4.Proposition 133 explained: Colorado voters to decide if child sex trafficking should be punishable by life in prison · The Colorado Sun · 2026-10-01 News report
  5. 5.Colorado ballot measure committees raise more than $20 million for 2026 election · Colorado Politics · 2026-09-25 News report
  6. 6.Millions in untraceable conservative money flooding into Colorado election · The Colorado Sun · 2026-10-14 News report
  7. 7.Campaign finance complaint targets backers of transgender ballot measures over petitions · Colorado Politics · 2026-09-22 News report