On July 25, Douglas County Commissioners Abe Laydon and Lora Thomas voted to award a “Suicide Prevention” grant to Castle Rock Pride, the LGBTQ group that produces PrideFest at the Douglas County taxpayer-funded Fairgrounds. Citizens have been shocked by videos of last summer’s drag show with bearded men in stripper spangles dancing provocatively and baring their butt cheeks and their fake prosthetic but very realistic breasts/nipples with children just a few feet away.

If Laydon had done the right thing and recused himself as an avowed “member of the LGBTQ community,” the vote would have failed. CR Pride has no experience whatsoever in suicide prevention. It’s essentially a social club for LGBTQ children and adults. Their grant application said they’d use the funds to expand their events for kids age eight and up — hikes, “GA(Y)ME nights,” beach parties, ice cream socials etc. (see their Facebook page) — to Parker and Highlands Ranch, and to hire a “therapist” to help youth with their mental health and gender confusion.

They hired Dr. Corinne Votaw Freer, (real name Corrine Joye Votaw, formerly Jeremy Craig Votaw according to Douglas County records) whose website identifies “her” as transgender/intersex and a “Malcontent Humanist & Enemy of Christian Nationalism.” Also: “I am a social psychologist, researcher and advocate” focusing on “the loneliness pandemic, the gender spectrum, and bolstering opposition to Christian Nationalism.”

The radical left woke political and gender views of this “advocate” have now been unleashed on the 14-year-old children of Douglas County at a recurring “Youth Community Group” according to its Facebook page.

Here is an angry, grievance-obsessed Christianity-and-Republican-hating transgender adult influencing lonely, gender-confused kids who are at their most vulnerable as they suffer the typical emotional/mental upheavals of adolescence. Looking for love and acceptance, they are in turmoil; one day they adore their parents, the next day they’re planning to run away from home. Glued to TikTok and You Tube where LGBTQ and transitioners are celebrated with entertaining videos, they are questioning their budding sexuality and encouraged to experiment with identities.

What happens when an unhappy, insecure 8-year-old child comes into the loving orbit of LGBTQ adults who surround this innocent soul with unicorns, rainbows and ice cream? When does counseling become grooming and advocating so-called “gender-affirming care” leading to “changing” into another gender as the solution to all their insecurities and growing-up angst?

Glittery drag shows and bearded men with fake breasts aren’t the only dangers facing Douglas County children.

Joy Overbeck, Parker