A bombshell report reveals that the state of Colorado has been actively channeling millions of taxpayer dollars into a disturbing network designed to indoctrinate children into believing they are “transgender” and steer them towards irreversible medical procedures, often with the express goal of circumventing parental knowledge and consent.
The investigative findings from Do No Harm paint a grim picture of a publicly funded apparatus, including government programs, social media influencer campaigns, and medical school curriculums, all meticulously crafted to push radical gender ideology on vulnerable youth. This isn't merely about offering services; it’s a coordinated effort to bully parents who stand in the way of their children’s mutilation and to pay “queer” children as young as 12 to attend virtual meetings promoting “transition” resources. Colorado, it seems, has decided it knows better than parents how to raise their children – and is willing to pay for it.
“Something unsettling is happening in Colorado. A publicly funded network of Colorado organizations is pushing resources that promote youth gender ideology on vulnerable children,” stated Dr. Kurt Miceli, chief medical officer at Do No Harm. “Our report is a case study examining how the transgender industrial complex has pushed further and further into the lives of children, reaching even as far as school-based health centers in the state.” And somehow, they still expect Americans not to notice the deliberate undermining of families.
The 'I Matter' Program: A Gateway to Gender Ideology
At the heart of this taxpayer-funded pipeline is Colorado’s “I Matter” program, ostensibly created to offer free mental health counseling to children. Yet, this program devours approximately $11 million per year from taxpayers and includes a sinister “confidentiality waiver” that effectively strips parental consent for children around age 12. The report questions how parental consent is even verified for children younger than that, and shockingly, participation requires neither insurance nor citizenship. This isn't about mental health; it's about control.
The report chillingly notes, “The program also notes that it will refer patients to healthcare providers for further treatment, allowing a child to confidently begin the medical journey of sex-rejecting ‘transition’ without parental knowledge or consent.” This is an open invitation for the state to medicalize children behind their parents' backs.
While “I Matter” claims not to exclusively focus on “transitioning” children, the numbers speak volumes. Out of 12,896 total encounters from 2021-2024, a staggering 469 were classified as “gender-affirming care.” This included three sessions for children aged five and younger, 46 for children between six and nine, and 40 for children with special needs. Targeting the most vulnerable among us for such life-altering interventions is not just concerning; it's predatory.
Adding insult to injury, “I Matter” launched a $5 million influencer campaign specifically targeting children, with social media personalities chosen for their young audience. These influencers, according to the report, “stressed the confidential nature and lack of parental consent at I Matter.” For parents, the message was subtly coercive: “‘Having a child in therapy is not a sign of failure’ and ‘Sometimes youth need to talk to someone else (a professional, not a parent).'” This is a playbook for government-sanctioned alienation and grooming.
Though “I Matter” doesn't directly administer puberty blockers, hormones, or mutilation surgeries, its free counseling serves as an undeniable funnel, convincing children they are a different gender and then directing them to organizations that will medicalize their dysphoria. It’s a classic bait-and-switch, funded by you.
Public School Clinics: An Institutionalized Push
The institutional creep of gender ideology extends deep into Colorado’s public education system through its School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs). With 53 operational clinics costing $21.5 million in operating expenses from 2021-2022, these centers logged 96,452 patient visits. While their stated services are broad, the trainings provided to practitioners are laser-focused on “transitioning” children. Courses like “Introduction to Providing Gender-Affirming Care to Transgender & Gender Diverse Youth” and “Supporting Gender-Expansive Youth” are not just available; they are a clear institutional trajectory, building what the report calls “GAC competency” among school-based health providers.
As The Federalist has previously reported, schools have become a primary conduit for the “transgender” medicalization pipeline. Colorado is merely proving that point with taxpayer-funded precision.
University of Colorado: Training Doctors to Betray Patients and Parents
Perhaps the most chilling revelation comes from the University of Colorado’s medical school, where future doctors are being trained not merely to treat, but to actively push irreversible “gender transition” procedures on children and to strong-arm parents into accepting the castration and mutilation of their own offspring. Children’s Hospital Colorado, an affiliate, boasts a “TRUE Center for Gender Diversity” that dispensed puberty blockers to 257 children and cross-sex hormones to 549 adolescents in 2025 alone. This isn't care; it's a factory.
The CU school of medicine’s “LGBTQ+ Health” curriculum unapologetically supports the “transition” of children at virtually all ages and, disturbingly, advises on billing workarounds to obscure these procedures. Students are taught that children as young as 18 months can “distinguish between gender identities,” and by six years old, can “develop his or her own gender identity.” This is not science; it’s ideological conditioning.
“Colorado’s future physicians are taught to follow the child’s lead if he or she expresses any sign of gender incongruence, convince parents that irreversible gender ‘transition’ is the right choice for their child, and even assist in hiding aspects of a child’s gender ‘transition’ from his or her parents,” the report states. In a stunning display of medical authoritarianism, students are instructed to confront unsupportive parents with the fallacious claim that rejecting “transition” risks adverse mental-health outcomes, including suicide – a tactic long debunked and widely condemned as emotional blackmail.
Any parent daring to suggest therapy to discourage a child from this path is immediately hit with accusations of “conversion therapy.” By age 11, the child in the curriculum's example is “socially transitioned” and ready for puberty blockers. By 15, on cross-sex hormones, students are taught how to conceal this from parents, using improper billing or no billing at all. The Children’s Hospital of Colorado, the report details, has “work arounds” to “bill it differently.” This is a deliberate scheme to deceive parents and evade transparency.
Colorado’s medical establishment teaches that by age 16, a child fully understands irreversible sterilization and mutilation procedures. Even more alarmingly, there are “no age minimums for ‘chest surgeries,’” and “‘bottom surgeries’ for minors are permissible if there is parental consent along with a letter from a physician and two therapists.” This isn't healthcare; it's state-sanctioned child abuse masquerading as compassion.
Colorado has numerous legal mechanisms to force gender transition on children, even through ugly custody battles, as The Federalist has diligently reported. But the fight is not over. Later this year, Coloradans will have the opportunity to vote on ballot initiatives aimed at banning these abhorrent child mutilation surgeries. It is a critical moment for parental rights, common sense, and the protection of innocent children from a radical agenda that has weaponized state institutions against its own citizens.
