As the 2017 Colorado legislative session wraps up on Wednesday, the Anti-Defamation League is celebrating a few key victories. In particular, two bills that strengthen Colorado’s hate crimes protections gained bi-partisan support and have already been signed into law by Governor John Hickenlooper.

ADL supported and testified in favor of House Bill 1138. The legislation requires the Colorado Department of Public Safety to include Colorado’s hate crimes statistics in its annual report to the Colorado General Assembly. The goal is to encourage local law enforcement agencies to report their statistics, shed light on hate crimes trends and help lawmakers evaluate public policy changes that can help counter an increase in hate crimes in the state.

ADL also supported and testified in favor of House Bill 1188. The bill amended Colorado’s bias-motivated harassment statute to include sexual orientation and disability as protected classes under the law. The state’s bias-motivated crimes statute was amended in 2005 to include sexual orientation and disability, along with race, color, religion, ancestry and national origin. The bias-motivated harassment statute was not updated at the same time.

In addition, ADL actively opposed several pieces of flawed legislation. In particular, ADL worked with coalition partners to defeat two religious exemptions bills. The first bill, House Bill 1013, was similar to laws in Indiana and North Carolina and would have allowed businesses and individuals to claim that their religion gives them permission to exempt themselves from Colorado’s critical non-discrimination laws. A second bill, Senate Bill 283, went even further and would have allowed an individual or business to claim that any belief they hold, not just religious, gives them permission to exempt themselves from non-discrimination laws.

ADL supported coalition partners to help defeat several anti-abortion bills, including a “personhood” bill that would have prohibited abortions in nearly all circumstances. The bill was very similar to three proposed “personhood” ballot measures that Colorado voters have defeated by wide margins.

ADL also actively opposed and testified against a neo-voucher bill that would have funneled tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to private, religious education. The bill was defeated in committee.

If you are interested in receiving Action Alerts on ADL’s public policy priorities, please contact Jeremy Shaver, Associate Director, at jshaver@adl.org. You may also log on to ADL’s Action Center to support additional policy campaigns: https://www.adl.org/take-action.