Obvious disrespect of privacy

As a registered nurse, I understand the scientific differences between men and women. It is clear and defined. The current focus on transgender is not the result of scientific information but the result of cultural changes fueling political interest groups within professional organizations.

The intimidation of female staffers in Colorado will not end well in the coming state elections. Female-only private spaces should remain female-only.

Three anonymous female staffers in the Colorado Capitol are standing up and saying, “Enough is enough.” They do not want to share a bathroom with a biological male. They met with the Office of Legislative Workplace Relations and Democratic-controlled legislators and were offered alternative “solutions” such as finding another restroom or going into the restroom in pairs to be safe. The burden was placed on them to adapt to an obvious disrespect of privacy.

The Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA) has placed women at risk over the right to public sex-segregated restrooms. How did we get to this, where we accept discrimination against women as acceptable? Our state’s majority party trifecta has ignored common sense and logic in favor of risking harm to our constituents.

This issue sends a clear message that women, once again, are being silenced and disregarded. What is the point of CADA if it only applies to certain categories of individuals and not female and male gender equally?

I respect Rep. Scott Bottoms (R-District 15) for challenging the Democratic-controlled legislature over this issue.

Legislation does not change biological reality, which begins with DNA. Women have a right to safe, separate restrooms. Create a transgender restroom to satisfy Colorado’s CADA requirements. Perhaps then we can go back to civil society and stop trying to convince Coloradans to accept intimidation for differing beliefs on gender.

Karen Pennington

Parker

Policies are cruel and harmful

The Donald Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are proposing $880 billion in cuts from Medicaid to pay for their appalling human rights abuses. This is not putting Americans first, this is putting us last. Politicians are spending billions on abductions, separating families, detaining hardworking immigrants, and sending people to foreign prisons where they are likely to be tortured. No cruelty is ever okay – period, and certainly not on the taxpayers’ dime. But what’s even worse is that these harms are happening at the expense of healthcare, veterans benefits, childcare and schools.

Medicaid helps millions of working families take care of loved ones, paying for most nursing care and home care in the United States. Nearly 40% of home care workers are hardworking immigrants. When politicians cut Medicaid to spend billions on harmful mass deportations, our healthcare infrastructure takes a double blow- families will lose health coverage and we will lose immigrant health workers. This hurts our aging parents, hardworking immigrant caregivers, and our communities.

These policies are cruel and harmful and will make life worse for millions of Americans who put in the hours and pay taxes, every paycheck, year after year. We deserve better.

Emily Weston

Wheat Ridge

Downtown Denver

Scooters, e-bikes, sidewalk detection. Oh my? Contaminated pot and mushrooms. Oh my. Sounds like the Wizard of Oz, doesn’t it? Thats what it is like living on the Front Range. As the state legislation session comes to a close taxpayers can take a deep breath or maybe not. You have to wonder what’s next for us.

City officials introduced the e-scooters, e-bikes, pot and mushrooms into the city. What did they think was going to happen. Wouldn’t it be common sense to see what would happen especially with the booze, pot and mushrooms readily available to consumers.

As a taxpayer I would like to know how much it cost the taxpayers to provide this service. I would like to know how much it costs taxpayers paying for the people going to the ER at Denver Health after they crack up on the scooters and bikes.

What has it cost taxpayers in taxes for all the bike lane construction? What has it cost taxpayers in lost travel time because two lane streets are now one lane streets. Restaurants are going broke every day because of lack of access (no parking) the stink of pot, the homeless, minimum wage requirements and increased taxes. We have all watched the deterioration of downtown Denver because of all the liberal, progressive influence on our city and State.

We should change the name of Denver to the Emerald City. It does feel like a fantasy city. Maybe someday the voters will wake up from their self-induced naps and see the mess they have created.

Trig Travis

Aurora

Our aging forests

What could trade wars and wildfires have in common?

There’s been a movement in Canada to buy less American-made whiskey. But there’s another threat to the whiskey industry, and that’s the depletion of white oak, which is a key component of the barrels that a good ol’ draw of Bourbon comes from.

Enter the Fix our Forests Act. While it won’t stop any trade wars, it can at least lay the foundation for saving our beloved white oaks. Of course, future-proofing America’s bourbon industry isn’t the sole purpose of the act. The act lays plans for reforestation of our aging, and frequently burning, forests, as well as performing prescribed burns and establishing firebreaks to assess risk areas.

Our forests currently offset about 12% of our pollution, but this is likely to decline as our forests age and/or become affected by the latest blaze.

This bill would streamline the process of protecting our forests, enabling a more robust and fire-resilient green belt to safeguard the communities we live in.

Our very own Senator Hickenlooper is already co-sponsoring the bill, but more support is needed to protect our aging forests. With careful planning and stewardship, we could secure future generations of beautiful trees of all types, including the white oak. I say cheers to that!

Bridger Cummings

Aurora