By Jeff Rice

Journal-Advocate staff writer

Progress has been made in the area of LGBT rights in Colorado, but that progress has to be preserved and built on.

That was the message Tuesday evening to a handful of local residents who attended a One Colorado briefing on the organization's work over the past six years. The Sterling briefing was part of a 10-stop statewide tour by One Colorado to update Coloradans on progress in gaining and retaining equal rights for LGBT citizens.

One Colorado was founded in 2010 and Executive Director Daniel Ramos told the group discrimination against the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual community has actually gotten worst over the past five years.

"We don't know whether that's because there are more (LGBT) people out or whether it's just a growing backlash," Ramos said, "but in almost every aspect of life, discrimination is getting worse."

But the good news, Ramos said, is that Colorado continues to be generally a safe place for LGBT people, and Coloradans generally favor "the protection of individual civil rights and personal safety."

Ramos said school districts are getting serious about training their staffs to combat bullying, with more than 9,000 people trained in the past five years. He also pointed to the adoption of HB-1254 in 2011, which created a fund and established criteria for anti-bullying training and enforcement in Colorado, primarily in the public schools. That was followed by Proposition BB in 2015 that allowed the state to keep $66 million in marijuana tax revenues and divert $2 million of that into the fund created for anti-bullying training.

Ramos said the Colorado Genral Assembly continues to knock down legislation aimed at diminishing the personal rights of LGBT citizens, particularly in the area of "conversion therapy" for children. There is a widely held myth that sexuality can be changed through therapy, but subjecting children to such practices is illegal in Colorado. Nonetheless, some Colorado legislators repeatedly introduce legislation to repeal that law, and Ramos said constant lobbying is needed to fight that.

"It has been proven again and again that this conversion therapy actually is harmful to children, but people continue to try to get it legalized," he said. "Fortunately, we have a (partisan) mix in the legislature that doesn't allow that, but it's a constant battle."

Ramos said the Affordable Care Act, and Colorado's decision to expand Medicaid to cover state residents, has helped LGBT people access health care that wasn't available to them before.

"A lot of people are reluctant to come out to their physicians, so ACA brings more doctors into the system, and that makes it easier for people to find a physician they feel comfortable with," he said. "That's important, especially in mental health, because we've found that medical people actually tend to over-report their acceptance of LGBT people. Over 85 percent of caregivers said they were comfortable working with LGBT patients, but the patients report a comfort level of about 60 percent."

Attempts to modify Colorado's birth certificate law need to continue, Ramos said, and members of the state legislature are slowly beginning to change their minds about it. A "modernization" act was introduced in 2015 that would have allowed a transgender person to have their birth certificate changed even without sexual reassignment surgery. A House committee defeated the measure.

Ramos also played a video made by Gov. John Hickenlooper voicing support for the transgender community.

"Hickenlooper is one of the few governors who will even say 'transgender,' let alone give support and recognition," he said. "We're going to lose him in two years, and we need to work on getting an LGBT-friendly majority in the legislature."

Jeff Rice: 970-526-9283, ricej@journal-advocate.com

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LGBT equality a work in progress - Journal Advocate