DENVER–A group of Christian medical care providers in Colorado is challenging the state’s anti-discrimination law, arguing it requires doctors to perform gender transition procedures that violate their religious beliefs, or face penalties.
The lawsuit, brought by the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA) and some of its Colorado members against several state agencies, cites the First and 14th Amendments as protecting the health care providers’ “freedom to speak consistent with biological reality and to refrain from participating in harmful medical procedures against their religious beliefs.”
The lawsuit marks the latest in a long line of cases in recent years challenging how Colorado treats Christians, including three losses for the state in cases that made their way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
One of the CMDA members listed in the lawsuit is Button Family Practice in Cañon City, a primary care clinic which practices medicine consistent with the Christian beliefs of its founder and owner, Marcus Button, M.D. The lawsuit lays out that patients have requested cross-sex hormones, but the practice chooses not to participate in sex change procedures because it would violate its Christian beliefs.
The Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing the association in the lawsuit, points to recent interpretations of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act, specifically its public accommodations clause that bans discrimination based on “protected classes” such as gender identity in places of business that offer services to the public.
“CMDA members and Button Family Practice desire to continue to follow their policy, pattern, and practice of refraining from participating in interventions that facilitate a patient’s gender transition and refraining from using pronouns and language inconsistent with a patient’s sex based on their religious beliefs, medical ethics, and medical judgment,” the lawsuit says.
“But the Accommodation Clauses prohibit that policy, pattern, and practice,” adding that members also “risk being penalized under the Accommodation Clauses every day that they follow these policies.”
The Colorado Supreme Court in May ruled that Children’s Hospital likely violated CADA when it ceased offering gender-related procedures to transgender kids.
“That ruling put our clients in direct conflict with CADA,” ADF Senior Counsel Bryan Neihart told Complete Colorado in a phone interview. “They do not provide gender transition procedures because it violates their religious beliefs and their medical judgment.”
Neihart pointed to cases in which ADF represented baker Jack Phillips and a Christian graphic designer in 303 Creative v. Elenis as examples of where the state “misused” CADA.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Colorado in Phillips’ case, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), as well as 303 Creative v. Elenis (2023), and most recently Chiles v. Salazar ( 2026).
As Complete Colorado previously reported, SCOTUS is also set to decide whether the state is discriminating against Catholic families and schools by barring them from participating in its universal preschool program.
CMDA filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court last week and names as defendants Colorado Civil Rights Division (CCRD) Director Aubrey Sullivan, Attorney General Phil Weiser, Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF) Executive Director Gretchen Hammer, and members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
A spokesperson for CCRD told Complete Colorado the agency could not comment on the lawsuit.
