Housing measures, gender-identity names bills considered by legislature this week

Colorado lawmakers are getting into the meat of the legislative session as we near the March midpoint of the 120-day session, and committees are in full swing.

Bills are passing their first chambers, too, and crossing the hall. The first of this year’s land-use bills — a measure to ban occupancy limits — has already cleared the House, as has a bill to provide more displacement protections for at-risk tenants. On Monday morning, the House was set to pass two bills allowing transgender people and others to more easily use names that fit their gender identities, after a tense debate last week that included frequent uses of language considered anti-trans by supporters.

Expanding rape shield law

Elsewhere Monday, a group of legislators and advocates unveiled HB24-1072 at a press conference in the Capitol. The bill would expand the state’s rape shield law and tighten evidentiary limits on sexual assault cases, including barring the use of a victim’s manner of dress or hairstyle as evidence of their consent.

The measure is bipartisan and is backed by a broad coalition of groups, including the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council and Mental Health Colorado. But it’s opposed by the Criminal Defense Bar, which worries the bill is unconstitutional.

Here’s what else to watch this week:

BDS bill redux

In 2016, the General Assembly passed — and then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed — a law requiring the Public Employees’ Retirement Association to divest from any company that’s refused to do business with Israel, such as through the “BDS” — boycott, divest and sanction — movement. The law was used against Ben & Jerry’s in 2022.

Now a Denver Democrat is trying to repeal that law amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, the House Finance Committee will hear HB24-1169, backed by Rep. Elisabeth Epps. The hearing promises to be busy: Pro-Palestinian advocates have called for supporters to participate in the hearing, which will begin at 1:30 p.m.

Epps’ bill comes as the Capitol has had an uneasy quiet recently about the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Nearly five months after Hamas militants killed 1,200 Israelis, Israel has pummeled Gaza and killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children.

Israel and Palestine flags dot various desks in the Colorado House, pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted House proceedings briefly in January, and one Republican representative has shopped around a resolution to condemn Hamas.

The most contentious moment related to the conflict came during the special session in November, when Epps sought to introduce a pro-Palestinian amendment to an unrelated bill and then, later, took to the House gallery and shouted down at her colleagues.

Housing, housing and more housing

Housing is perhaps the top issue affecting Colorado residents, and there’s no escaping housing bills in the Capitol.

This week, lawmakers will consider several measures in various committees. They include Tuesday hearings for HB24-1099, which would eliminate certain court fees paid by tenants facing eviction; HB24-1152, a bipartisan bill to allow for accessory-dwelling units in Front Range cities; and SB24-094, which would amend the state’s warrant of habitability law to help tenants in unsafe housing conditions.