Female athlete advocacy group and Colorado grassroots coalition urge a YES vote to keep boys out of girls' sports and spaces.

DENVER, Oct. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Athletes for Action, an organization of former female athletes, coaches, and parents dedicated to protecting girls' and women's sports, today announced a partnership with Protect Kids Colorado in support of Proposition 134, the Protect Girls' Sports Act in Colorado. Athletes for Action is also launching a statewide video ad urging Colorado voters to vote YES on Proposition 134 in the November 3 election.

While Athletes for Action works nationally, its roots in Colorado run deep. Co-founder Megan Kaltenbach Burke grew up competing in Colorado, where she won 15 Colorado 5A state championships before becoming a two-time NCAA champion, an American record holder, and an All-American at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. Today she is raising two daughters in Colorado, and the fight to pass Proposition 134 is personal: it will decide whether her girls get a fair shot in the same sports that shaped her.

Proposition 134 would require athletic teams in Colorado to be designated as male, female, or coed, and would reserve teams designated for women and girls for biological female athletes only. The measure qualified for the ballot in March after volunteers gathered more than 170,000 verified signatures from Coloradans.

"I swam for the University of Pennsylvania and was forced to change in the locker room 18x a week with a fully exposed male, and I know what it feels like when the people in charge decide that fairness and privacy for female athletes are negotiable. Girls in Colorado deserve better than that. Prop 134 gives every girl a fair shot at a roster spot, a podium, and a scholarship...and a girls-only locker room. Athletes for Action is proud to stand with Protect Kids Colorado and the thousands of Colorado families who put this on the ballot," said Paula Scanlan, co-founder of Athletes for Action and a former NCAA D1 swimmer.

"This measure is on the ballot because ordinary Colorado parents and grandparents stood outside grocery stores and churches and gathered signatures one at a time. Having Athletes for Action's female athletes join this fight sends a clear message: the women who lived this know what's at stake. Voting YES on 134 is how Colorado protects fair competition for our daughters and granddaughters," said Erin Lee, founder of Protect Kids Colorado.

The campaign comes three months after the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox that states may maintain girls' and women's sports teams for biological females. Colorado voters now have the opportunity to write that standard into state law.

In March, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights found that Jefferson County Public Schools violated Title IX by allowing male students to compete in girls' sports, citing district rosters showing that male students occupied up to 61 positions on girls' teams.

The ad follows a young female athlete training alone on an outdoor track. On-screen text tells viewers that girls in Colorado are being forced to compete against boys, even as many insist it isn't happening. The ad's central message: "When we tell her it's not happening, we're telling her she doesn't matter." The spot closes with "Vote Yes to Protect Women's Sports. Vote Yes on Proposition 134." Watch the ad: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dd69vxPCXpf/?stkn=dW9pZ24zM3JlaXdt

Colorado voters will receive mail ballots in October. The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026.

About Athletes for Action

Athletes for Action was created to protect girls and women in sports and to build a community of female athletes who support one another - athletesforaction.com.

About Protect Kids Colorado

Protect Kids Colorado is a broad coalition of parents, grandparents, and concerned citizens working to protect kids and strengthen families in Colorado. protectkidscolorado.org.

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SOURCE Athletes for Action