Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.

Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.

Good morning.

This is the September 16th Health and Safety Committee meeting.

My name is Daryl Watson.

I'm honored to serve as the committee chair for this committee, as well as the city council representing all of the fine district nine.

We have one action item uh today.

It's 261305 sex and gender identity protection ordinance.

And before we roll into the presentation, why don't we start with introductions from city council members?

I'll verify first of uh my brother from another mother, Councilman Cashman is online.

I am here.

Good morning, Paul Cashman, South Denver District 6.

And then let's begin with introduction starting on my right.

Kevin Flynn, South West Denver District 2.

Stacy Gilmore, District 11.

Hi everyone, Sedana Gonzalez Cuquetas.

One of the council members at large.

Good morning, Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver, District 4.

Thank you so much, Councilmembers.

Let me pause and see if there is anyone else online.

Seeing none, today's um presentation is an action item and there will be public comment.

Um we'll share kind of a little bit of the overview of how the public comment process uh will roll out after the presentation.

So with that, I'll turn it over to the council sponsors, Councilmember Gilmore and Councilmember Lewis for the presentation.

Thank you.

Wonderful, thank you.

Uh we are honored to um be here this morning uh to present the sex and gender identity protection ordinance.

And um this is very meaningful work, and uh I am honored to uh be in partnership with Councilwoman Lewis uh on this legislation.

Uh Councilmember Parity and I had started working on it, and unfortunately she wasn't able to um finish it out with us, but I texted her this morning and uh told her thank you for the honor of being able to carry this forward and and so I'll stop there and see if Councilwoman Lewis, you have any opening remarks.

Just thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you for the folks that we've been able to work in partnership with um to move this along forward for your time.

Yes.

Definitely, definitely.

Uh and so we'll go to the second slide here.

Um also um want to uh thank Meredith from my council office and uh Mikao and Dakota from Councilwoman Lewis's office as well.

Uh we've got a short agenda this morning.

Uh we're going to discuss the sex and gender identity protection ordinance.

Uh our protection, our present presentation, excuse me, covers why the ordinance is deep needed, what the ordinance aims to do and specific provisions in the ordinance.

The conversations that we've had with city agencies and community leaders along with the ordinance's current legislative timeline.

Um, just to talk a bit about why the ordinance is needed.

So over 25 states have banned or restricted best practice gender affirming care for minors, and 19 states have banned use of gender appropriate bathrooms for transgender people.

Even in Colorado, there are school districts that are allegedly attempting to force transgender children to out themselves to their schools and have parents sign behavioral contracts that require using bathrooms aligning with sex assigned at birth.

And given the alarming political climate and increasing targeting of transgender and gender expansive people, we must do something as a city to protect the people who live, work, and recreate within our within Denver.

And so this policy was shaped by the direct input of community leaders and constituents in order to be able to address those concerns.

Thank you.

And to flesh out what that means, this ordinance applies to voluntary collection and disclosure of an individual's actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression data, which for ease of reference will refer to the so as the SOTI data.

And I want to underscore that the mandatory collection and disclosure of SOTI data that is required by federal, state, or city law is exempt from these requirements.

Moreover, voluntary collection and disclosure of the SOCI data that is necessary to affect an important city interest is also exempt from these requirements.

And this includes but is not limited to data used for human services, health services, behavioral health services, criminal justice, shelter management, and matters related to grant applications, compliance reporting or management.

The ordinance is proposed to go into effect and would require city entities to come into full compliance by January 1 of 2027.

We'll dealt dwell into that more and the agency reporting requirements when we get to the implementation slide later on in the presentation.

We'll go ahead and uh now get specific on one of the four key provisions in the ordinance.

And the first one is reducing unnecessary documentation and record keeping.

And this bill will ensure that no department, agency, board, commission, officer, employee, or contractor of the city shall require the collection of or disseminate personal information regarding an individual's actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, unless required by federal, state or city law or regulation, or unless necessary to effectuate an important city interest.

If SOCI data is required to be collected, the information shall only be retained for 30 days, excluding information needed to comply with federal, state or city law regulation, or to effectuate an important city interest.

Thereafter thereafter, any non-excluded information related to SOCI data must be permanently destroyed from any city records.

To continue into the weeds, just a bit more.

So for the provision which prevents the weaponization of city resources, it mandates that the city shall not use any city funds or resources to assist another city, county, state, or the federal government with the collection of the SOC data, nor will it assist in any current or future efforts for of another city, county, state, or federal government to disclose an individual's SOC information or discriminate against any person based on their actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression unless required by federal, state, or city law or regulation, or unless necessary to effectuate an important city interest.

And the city shall not enter into any contractual agreement that would commit or require any city official, any city officer or employee to directly or indirectly assist in the collection of an individual SOCI data unless it is necessary to affect an effectuate services and serves an important city interest.

For uh the third key provision, the ordinance aims to limit city involvement with outside entities in investigations, which may target trans and gender expansive people by mandating that first the city shall not use any funds, resources, or its law enforcement personnel to assist another city, county, state, or federal law enforcement agency in any attempt to stop, detain, question, search, interrogate, surveillance, identify or investigate individuals based solely upon an individual's actual or perceived sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression.

And additionally, additionally, that no city agency shall share its program applications, intake information, census data, or technology use agreements with any other city, county, state, or federal law enforcement agent, unless again required by state, federal, or city law regulation or necessary to effectuate an important city interest.