Parents Are Fighting Back: Could Colorado’s Grassroots Strategy Spread Across America?

Three citizen-led measures headed to Colorado’s November ballot could offer parents and grandparents nationwide a lesson in what happens when everyday Americans take action themselves instead of waiting for lawmakers to act.

Colorado has hardly been considered friendly territory for the parental rights movement in recent years.

But a grassroots campaign there could offer parents and grandparents across America a lesson in what happens when ordinary citizens decide that they’re tired of waiting for elected officials to do the right thing.

This November, Colorado voters will decide three citizen-led ballot measures dealing with human trafficking, prohibiting men in women’s sports, and stopping dangerous transgender surgeries on minors.

The measures didn’t reach the ballot because state lawmakers suddenly changed course.

They got there because thousands of ordinary citizens organized and took the issues directly to voters.

Protect Kids Colorado says more than 3,300 volunteer petition circulators gathered more than 500,000 signatures across the three campaigns, ultimately qualifying Propositions 133, 134, and 135 for the November ballot.

On Thursday, September 10, AMAC Action will give members across the country an opportunity to hear directly from one of the people behind that effort.

Erin Lee of Protect Kids Colorado will join AMAC Action for “Protecting America’s Kids: Restoring Common Sense, Parental Rights & Childhood,” a national webinar examining how the campaign came together, the issues driving it, and what parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens in other states can learn from the experience.

Protecting America’s Kids: Restoring Common Sense, Parental Rights & Childhood

Date: Thursday, September 10, 2026
Time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern
The webinar will be recorded

The issues at stake are significant in Colorado. But for every American, the way those measures got on the ballot may be just as important.

Proposition 133 would increase penalties for human trafficking of a minor. Proposition 134 would establish requirements governing male and female participation in school and collegiate sports. Proposition 135 would prohibit certain transgender surgeries for minors.

Getting all three before voters required far more than frustration with government.

Citizen initiatives demand organization, volunteers, valid signatures, legal compliance, and enough public support to keep an effort alive long before Election Day.

Protect Kids Colorado did exactly that.

And in at least one case, the ballot initiative became an alternative after lawmakers declined to act.

Earlier this year, Colorado lawmakers considered the Children Are Not For Sale Act, legislation that sought to increase criminal penalties for trafficking a minor for sexual servitude.

The bill was postponed indefinitely in the Colorado House Judiciary Committee.

That could have ended the effort.

Instead, voters will now decide Proposition 133 themselves.

That distinction matters well beyond Colorado.

In states that permit citizen initiatives, voters sometimes have another option when lawmakers refuse to advance an issue: organize, collect signatures, and take the question directly to the public.

Of course, getting on the ballot is not the same thing as winning.

Propositions 134 and 135 have already drawn organized opposition.

Critics argue that the measures would interfere with family and medical decision-making and unfairly target young people who believe they are transgender. Supporters counter that sex-based rules are necessary to preserve fairness in girls’ athletics and that children should be protected from irreversible surgical procedures when they cannot possibly give informed consent.

Colorado voters will decide those questions in November.

But Americans elsewhere do not have to wait for the results to learn something from the campaign.

A parent in Florida cannot vote on Proposition 134. A grandparent in Pennsylvania cannot decide the fate of Proposition 135. An AMAC member in Ohio has no direct say over Colorado law.

They can, however, pay attention to what happened before those measures ever reached the ballot.

Thousands of people who did not hold elected office recruited volunteers, talked to their neighbors, gathered signatures, and built enough support to force major public policy questions before voters.

Politics can create the impression that meaningful change belongs almost exclusively to governors, legislators, political parties, major donors, and national organizations.

The Colorado campaign suggests otherwise.

Political movements can still begin much closer to home.

That does not mean every concerned parent or grandparent needs to launch a statewide ballot initiative.

It could mean attending a school board meeting, meeting with a legislator, organizing neighbors, volunteering with a grassroots group, or simply learning what government is considering before a controversial proposal becomes law.

What happens when citizens stop waiting for someone else to lead?

Colorado is providing the answer.