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The 1990s’ conservative strategy that brought us Amendment 2 comes back with a new target: trans rights. In the 2026 midterm elections, Colorado and four other states will vote on anti-trans ballot proposals funded by right-wing groups across the country—this time primarily targeting trans kids.

Kay, a 17-year-old transgender teen, is working on living as his full self against this backdrop of extreme political scrutiny. He and his family share how they’re navigating this contentious time, when much of the national discourse on trans people is rife with disinformation and fearmongering. Kae Petrin, co-founder of the Trans Journalists Association, helps us to correct the record when it comes to some of the claims you may have heard about gender affirming care for minors.

June Churchill, a trans candidate for Denver City Council, comments on the billionaire interests behind Colorado’s conservative ballot measures, and Rep. Brianna Titone warns that targeting trans Americans is only part of a larger political goal. Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, explains how she and other allied groups are fighting back.

Hate State is a production of Odd Bird Sound and Word and LOOKOUT News.

Our editors and executive producers are Carolina Murriel and Isis Madrid of Pizza Shark.

This episode was written and produced by Xandra McMahon, Ann Marie Awad, and Chris Fazzari.

Original music by Addison Rider with additional music from Epidemic Sound.

Our engineer is Patrick Mcnameeking.

Please subscribe to hear the next installment, and find our reporting on LookoutNews.org

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While the fight against Colorado’s Amendment 2 reaches the US Supreme Court, establishing a landmark precedent for LGBTQ rights across the country, the pendulum swings — and it swings again. Still.

Starting in the late ‘90s, Colorado makes strides towards becoming a much more welcoming state to LGBTQ people. In 2018, on top of electing the first gay male governor in the country, Coloradans also elected one of the nation’s first transgender state representatives: Democratic state Rep. Brianna Titone. Thanks to their efforts, the state adopts laws to ban conversion therapy, and to protect gender affirming care from interstate prosecution.

But those protections are precisely what make the state a target for a new wave of conservative attacks — this time by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a much larger organization flush with cash, and ready to replicate a strategy that continuously puts LGBTQ rights in the hands of the nation’s highest court.

Their first case: Masterpiece Cakeshop v. The Colorado Civil Rights Division. Civil rights attorney Paula Greisen shares how she navigated ADF’s tactics in the courtroom, and we hear from the next generation of trans civil servants facing the latest wave of conservative attacks.

Hate State is a production of Odd Bird Sound and Word and LOOKOUT News.

Our editors and executive producers are Carolina Murriel and Isis Madrid of Pizza Shark.

This episode was written and produced by Xandra McMahon, Ann Marie Awad, and Chris Fazzari.

Original music by Addison Rider with additional music from Epidemic Sound.

Our engineer is Patrick McNameeking

Archival tape in this episode comes from the documentary “Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too.” Thanks to Su Friedrich and Janet Baus at the New York Lesbian Avengers. Thanks also to Colorado Public Radio for allowing us to use tape from a 2019 story about Rep. Brianna Titone.

Please subscribe to hear the next installment, and find our reporting on LookoutNews.org

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Being queer in America right now feels like being caught on the wrong side of a pendulum swinging backwards. And no state knows it better than Colorado.

Even though it’s currently a safe haven for LGBTQ Americans, back in the ‘90s, the landscape of equal rights in Colorado—and across America—was pretty stark. You could say there were actually two completely different Colorados at once. And in 1992, those two Colorados ended up on a collision course over an amendment so egregious it earned Colorado a big, bad nickname.

In order to understand how Colorado became the “Hate State,” we zoom back to the 1950s, when Colorado Springs transformed from a hub of military spending to the “Evangelical Vatican.” Over time, a critical mass of evangelical organizations would flex their muscle to impact state law. Enter Amendment 2—and the blueprint for the nationwide strategy to roll back queer rights that’s still impacting elections today.

In this episode, historian Will Schultz explains how Colorado Springs became the “Evangelical Vatican,” while gay activist and writer Phil Nash recounts how, in his Colorado, Denver’s LGBTQ community found a refuge in the city’s first center for gays and lesbians, even as conservative Colorado waged a campaign against them.

Hate State is a production of Odd Bird Sound and Word and LOOKOUT News.

Our editors and executive producers are Carolina Murriel and Isis Madrid of Pizza Shark.

This episode was written and produced by Xandra McMahon, Ann Marie Awad, and Chris Fazzari. Sound design by Carolina Murriel.

Original music by Addison Rider with additional music from Epidemic Sound.

Archival tape in this episode comes from the documentary “Lesbian Avengers Eat Fire Too.” Thanks to Su Friedrich and Janet Baus at the New York Lesbian Avengers.

Our engineer is Tyler Hill. Additional engineering support from Patrick McNameeking.

Please subscribe to hear the next installment, and find our reporting on LookoutNews.org

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

How reliable are your home state’s equal-rights protections? Could the safety of your family be put at risk by a single election?

This happened to Colorado’s LGBTQ community in the ‘90s. That’s right—while you might think of it as the Wild West, the “weed state,” and one of the first states to legalize same-sex marriage, Colorado wasn’t always a safe haven for progressives and LGBTQ Americans. In the ‘90s, evangelical groups from Colorado Springs introduced an anti-gay amendment that sparked a national outrage. Eventually, the pendulum swung in the direction of progress. But that might be about to change.

This is a story about Colorado. But it's also a story about Florida. And Texas. And Tennessee. And Ohio. And maybe wherever you are right now. Because the strategy that made Colorado the Hate State traveled all around the country. And there’s always another election around the corner.

Hate State is a three-part miniseries about Colorado’s history as a testing ground for far-right policies, and how the playbook used to target gay and lesbian people in 1992 is at work again today, focused on transgender people.

Subscribe now and listen to the first episode Oct. 20.

Hate State is a production of Odd Bird Sound & Word and LOOKOUT News, hosted by Ann Marie Awad and Xandra McMahon, with production and editorial support from Pizza Shark.

Support the show