The next time you visit Colorado, you may run into members of the opposite sex when you use a public restroom.
Under a bill sitting on Gov. Bill Ritter's desk, all "public accommodations" must be open to men, women, bisexuals, transsexuals and "transgendered" individuals.
Senate Bill 200 adds religion and sexual orientation to state nondiscrimination statutes. Supporters claim the bill will prevent discrimination; in reality, the bill endangers religious freedom by opening the door for the state to punish any person or organization — including small and home-based businesses — that refuses, for religious or other moral reasons, to offer or sell goods or services to homosexuals, bisexuals, 'transgendered' and transsexual individuals.
Focus on the Family Action began airing radio ads today to inform Coloradans about this over-reaching bill. 
SB 200 would apply to all "public accommodations" in Colorado — including gender-specific public restrooms in shopping malls and movie theaters, and public locker rooms in athletic facilities, which would suddenly be required to permit equal access to men, women and cross-dressers. Churches, mosques and synagogues would be exempt.
"With SB 200, we no longer have two 'sexes,' " said Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family Action. "We enter a brave new world with a myriad of 'sexual orientations.' This bill, unfortunately, is in keeping with a national effort by 'transgender' advocacy organizations to accomplish an open-bathroom policy."
 
Hausknecht said sexual predators can be expected to use this law as "cover" as they search for their next victims — in any public bathroom they come across.
"SB 200 threatens public safety and tramples religious freedoms," he said. "This bill needs to be vetoed and sent back to the Legislature with instructions to come back next session with something that all Coloradans can be proud of."