Served My Country. Stripped of My Kids.

Editor’s Note: This is a rhetorical example—a story built from real patterns we’re already seeing unfold in family courts. While the individuals in this story are fictional, the implications are not. Colorado’s House Bill 25-1312 sets a dangerous precedent: one where the state assumes it knows how to parent your child better than you do. Another weapon in the arsenal for either parent to use their child as a weapon in divorce. If allowed to stand, this bill opens the door for government overreach into any custody case, regardless of whether gender identity is even relevant. It allows one parent, often with greater financial or political favor, to cite ideological affirmation as a reason to remove the other parent entirely. This is not just about one issue. It’s about control. It’s about power. And it’s about the erosion of parental rights.

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I fought for my country. I bled for it. I came home, not whole, but determined to rebuild a life that mattered, especially for my kids. They were the light that kept me grounded, the reason I kept showing up to therapy, stayed sober, and rebuilt a sense of purpose after war had stripped so much away.

But nothing prepared me for the battle I’d face in a courtroom.

My ex-wife knew the one thing I couldn’t bear to lose: our children. And she used them like weapons. She painted my PTSD diagnosis not as a scar earned through service, but as a danger. She twisted the truth, spinning stories that turned my commitment to healing into ammunition against me. Not once had I ever harmed my children. Not once had I abandoned them. I was the one showing up to every visitation, every school event I was allowed to attend, every court date. I wanted nothing more than to be the dad they deserved.

But the system failed me.

And then came Colorado’s House Bill 25-1312.

Though it was marketed as a protective measure for trans youth, it opened the door to invasive, ideological interventions, even when the child in question wasn’t trans. It gave the state more power than ever to interfere in parental rights based on vague “affirmation” language. My son, just a confused 11-year-old trying to navigate his parents’ separation, made an offhand comment at school about feeling different. It became a grenade. Instead of helping him, they all weaponized it. Her lawyers knew exactly how to twist this for my ex’s gain.

Without due process, without real concern for context or intent, the court allowed this bill to be cited in our case. The judge leaned on it to grant my ex-wife full decision-making power, further eroding my ability to parent. My son is not trans. He’s a kid. A kid who deserves both his parents. But now, he’s being pulled further into a politicized tug-of-war, and I’m being silenced. Not because I’m unfit, but because I don’t align with the state’s ever-changing ideology.

This bill should terrify you.

If it can happen here, in Colorado, on the very ground I fought for, it can happen anywhere.

This isn’t just about one father. It’s about the slow erosion of parental rights, of due process, of common sense.

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CALL TO ACTION:

If you believe parents, not your state, should have the right to raise their children…

If you believe PTSD should not be used as a weapon against veterans who are trying their damn best…

If you believe every child deserves a relationship with both loving parents…

Now is the time to act.

Write your Colorado senators. Call their offices. Speak out against HB 25-1312.

Because today it’s me. Tomorrow it might be you. And by then, it’ll be too late.

Anyone looking to express their opposition to CO HB 25-1312 can use this link or contact your CO state representative and the governor’s office. Even if you don’t live in Colorado, please make it known to our officials that the nation and OUR COMMUNITY is watching. It’s just the latest attack on the rights of traditional families here in Colorado to protect their children from being evangelized by those on the social left. Protecting children should be everyone’s responsibility. Sadly, many of Colorado’s elected officials don’t share this point of view.

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The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or official position of Havok Journal.