After nearly four weeks of contentious buildup, Senate lawmakers on Wednesday began consideration of legislation that would extend new protections to transgender Coloradans.

Changes were expected for House Bill 1312 as it started its journey through the Senate. A hearing on the bill in the Judiciary Committee was not expected to reach a vote until late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.

After internal debate between the bill’s supporters and prominent LGBTQ+ groups flared up recently, Democratic lawmakers planned to remove some language from the bill. The deletions would include a provision adding a parent’s misgendering or “deadnaming” of their child to the definition of “coercive control” in the state’s family law statutes. Deadnaming is referring to a person by the name they used before they transitioned.

Sen. Faith Winter described the planned amendments as the hearing began around 3:15 p.m., but they were likely to be considered at the end of a long day in the committee. Several hundred people signed up to testify for and against HB-1312, and the committee planned to give each side four hours of public comment.

People were lined up outside the hearing room and in a separate overflow room down the hall in the Capitol. Bill opponents held protests outside the building in the hours before the hearing started.

The bill’s other protections include barring state courts from using other states’ laws to remove a child from a parent’s custody because the child received gender-affirming care. The measure also seeks changes to schools’ dress code and chosen-name policies.

Proponents say the bill is necessary to protect transgender Coloradans, particularly amid the checkered legal and political landscape now facing transgender people. The bill, if passed, would be named for Kelly Loving, a transgender woman who died in the Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs.

“Today we are considering House Bill 25-1312, the Kelly Loving Act, which aims to update Colorado law to ensure that transgender individuals, especially youth, can live with dignity and live with the legal protections that so many of us take for granted,” said Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors, in introductory remarks.

The proposal has drawn national attention as Republican lawmakers have opposed it and have gone on Fox News to criticize it as an infringement on parental rights. On Wednesday, opponents speaking on the Capitol steps referred to the bill as “demonic” and to its supporters as communists.

“The line in the sand has been drawn,” Littleton Republican Rep. Brandi Bradley said. “We’re going to continue to fight for children in the state of Colorado.”

Testimony was still underway Wednesday evening.

Senate OKs firearm theft bill

The Colorado Senate approved a bill Wednesday morning to make theft of firearms a felony, setting it up to clear the legislature.

House Bill 1062 would make the theft of a firearm a Class 6 felony, regardless of the gun’s value. For more types of theft, the difference between misdemeanor and felony depends on the value of the stolen goods. Class 6 is the least-severe class of felony and carries a penalty of one year to 18 months in prison and fines of $1,000 to $100,000.

Sponsor Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat, argued that “firearms in criminal hands pose a unique threat to our communities,” regardless of the gun’s value. The bill was also sponsored by Sen. Byron Pelton, a Sterling Republican; Rep. Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat; and Rep. Ryan Armagost, a Berthoud Republican.

The House already passed the bill, but it will need to return to the chamber for its concurrence on a small change to its cost.

Jury trials for evictions

A bill that would allow jury trials for some tenants facing eviction narrowly passed the House on Wednesday morning.

House Bill 1235, which passed with the bare minimum of 33 votes, is the legislature’s answer to a question left hanging by a strange state Supreme Court saga last year. In October, the high court ruled that tenants have a right to jury trial in eviction proceedings. Two months later, though, the justices abruptly reversed themselves and direct the legislature to decide.

Under HB-1235, tenants facing eviction would be able to pursue a jury trial if they had a material dispute with their landlord. That would mean a disagreement over an alleged lease violation — but it would not include when a tenant was late on rent, the most common cause of eviction.

The bill was previously hung up in legislative limbo amid fears of the financial cost. That was greeted with frustration from advocates and legislators, who felt the courts were placing a prohibitive price tag on a policy question that the judicial system asked the legislature to solve.

In any case: HB-1235 now heads to the state Senate.