Gov. Jared Polis long has been considered a moderate Democrat, one who’s gone so far as to brand himself a libertarian in the past. As a result, he’s been considered a 2028 presidential contender, too.

So what does his brand of “moderation” look like? Apparently, forcing insurers to pay for laser hair removal, nose jobs, and chin implants, among a long list of other surgeries and hormone regimens — as long as they’re deemed “medically necessary” in the name of “gender-affirming care,” per House Bill 25-1309, which Polis just signed into law.

In other words, if you’re a resident of Colorado looking to audition for “Real Housewives,” you’ll have to pay for your own lip lift — but if you identify as transgender, your insurer is mandated to.

In a post on X announcing the legislation, Polis wrote, “In Colorado, health care is a private choice, and we’re dedicated to protecting your freedoms and keeping health care costs down.” His words would be comical if they weren’t so Orwellian: forcing insurers to cover more procedures —c ostly plastic surgeries — is going to raise everyone’s premiums, which means that health care stops being a “private choice” and starts being a matter of public concern.

It also explicitly uses taxpayer money for a state cash fund to cover medical and surgical transition, allowing Colorado to sidestep the recent federal reconciliation bill that bans Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act from covering medical and surgical transition.

Moreover, with many of the mandated-coverage procedures being highly experimental and prone to complications, especially genital surgeries and cross-sex hormone regimens, there is cause for moral concern, particularly where minors are concerned. According to recent polls, the majority of Americans oppose the medical and surgical transition of minors, and one of the key reasons voters shifted to Trump in 2024 was because Kamala Harris was seen as prioritizing gender ideology over the needs of average Americans.

The Colorado bill’s codified protection of plastic surgeries drew ridicule, and rightly so, but it’s actually a gravely serious issue: many of these surgeries are irreversible, and cause physical damage.

The bill also contains a concerning provision that exempts testosterone from the state’s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, which is designed to prevent prescription drug abuse. Testosterone in females can cause vaginal atrophy, vaginal lacerations, clitoral enlargement, facial hair growth, vocal hoarseness, menstrual and fertility problems, and sexual dysfunction, among other concerns—removing it from any drug oversight means eliminating accountability for the doctors who prescribe it without heeding the side effects.

While perhaps there is short-term political gain for progressives to pass such bills and signal their in-group bona fides, the medical reality points to a darker long-term outcome, one in which progressives are hurting themselves and their constituents the most.

No amount of ideological commitment can safeguard them from the medical harm that comes from such procedures. Just look at the increasing number of detransitioners coming out and speaking about their experiences — these are people who were committed enough to gender ideology that they went through social and medical transition themselves, only to come out physically and mentally scarred from the experience.

They gave up on gender ideology not because they didn’t believe in it, but because they believed in it so much that it was able to hurt them intimately.

There’s good reason that more and more states, as well as the federal government, are rejecting gender ideology and the medical mutilation done in its name. The fact that Colorado is doubling down on gender ideology despite every reason to exercise caution and restraint shows just how divorced progressives have become not just from public opinion but from reality —a reality that’s going to come back to haunt them.

Neeraja Deshpande is a policy analyst at Independent Women (iwf.org).