It's stupid foggy. Be safe out in the roads!

Photos from this mornings fog!

From the article:

"Why are therapists named in a surgery ban?"

"Proposition 135 is being sold as a narrow ban on gender surgery for minors. But if you read the actual text, one detail stands out. The measure’s definition of “healthcare professional” includes dentists, optometrists, chiropractors, podiatrists, pharmacists, physical therapists, psychologists and mental health therapists."

"None of these people perform gender surgery."
"So why is the list so long? Because the measure doesn’t ban specific procedures. It bans care given “in response to a minor’s perception of sex or gender.” No patient, parent, or provider can be confident what that phrase covers. It is simply too broad."

"Imagine you’re an orthodontist or a physical therapist and you think your 15-year-old patient could be transgender. Is it worth risking a complaint against your license to find out where the line is? The easiest way to avoid that risk is to stop seeing trans kids altogether. Even the state’s nonpartisan voter guide warns that providers may cut back the care they offer for fear of legal consequences."

"That is what Proposition 135 really does. It doesn’t just stop surgeries. Instead, it makes trans youth unwelcome in ordinary exam rooms and healthcare offices: for braces, for a sprained ankle, for an eye exam, for mental health therapy. A family that needs to find care for their child shouldn’t have to wonder whether a therapist, optometrist, or dentist will turn their child away."

"Vote “no” on Proposition 135."

EDIT: Tuesday, November 3rd
Practical post, no lecture. Denver, your ballot is on your counter right now, and every odd-year election the same thing happens: the people who agree hardest vote least, and margins get decided by whoever actually walked to a drop box. This is the ten minutes you need to finish yours.

The two measures eating this city's group chats:

Prop 134 requires every team in Colorado to be labeled male, female, or co-ed, K-12 through college so that's every DPS team AND every college team in Denver, from rec leagues up through Metro and CU Denver. Enforcement means sex verification of student athletes: the reporting that's come out describes doctor's notes and DNA swabs costing families hundreds of dollars, and any girl can be challenged by anyone with a grudge too tall, too strong, short hair. Denver schools have handled these situations case by case for decades, and nobody in the state even tracks how many trans kids play school sports because the number is tiny. We'd be building a statewide verification bureaucracy for a problem nobody can count.

Prop 135 bans gender-affirming surgery for minors. Colorado's own nonpartisan Blue Book flags the language as vague enough to sweep in surgeries for kids who aren't even transgender intersex kids included. Harvard research puts actual trans surgeries for teens 15–17 at roughly 2 per 100,000. And Colorado law already requires parental consent for any surgery on a minor. A near-empty ban with real collateral damage and an insurance knock-on for families.

Context both measures share: they bypassed Colorado's legislature on purpose lawmakers refused to pass this stuff because national organizers picked our state as a blue-state "testing ground." Denver knows this playbook: Amendment 2 in 1992 made us the Hate State, cost this city real boycotts and convention business, and took decades to live down. We've run this experiment before. We know the bill that comes with it.

The logistics the actual point of this post:

Your ballot is at your house (or your old address update at GoVoteColorado.com or vote in person)
NO on 134. NO on 135. Vote the whole sheet while you're at it Prop NN (school funding, Denver benefits directly) and Prop 137 (conservation) matter too
SIGN YOUR ENVELOPE. Missing or mismatched signatures are the #1 reason Colorado ballots get tossed and they're fixable through ballot cure if you catch it quickly
Denver drop boxes are everywhere and open 24/7 until 7pm Tuesday rec centers, libraries, the clerk's office downtown, all over the neighborhoods. No stamp, no line
Lost, damaged, or botched it? Any Denver vote center prints you a replacement through Election Day
Already voted? You're the backbone. Now text three Denver friends and ask if theirs is in. That's the whole margin in an election like this.
There will be a 400-comment war in this thread by tonight. Fine. But the actual decision doesn't happen in the comments it happens at drop boxes by 7pm Tuesday, November 3. Denver turned this state around once before, back when it counted. Let's do the ten-minute version this week.

NO on 134. NO on 135. Get it in the box.

I’ll go first… Olivia, auto 20% gratuity (there were two of us and we sat at the bar)

Hey yall! We have been building this great community for Denver wow players to hangout and game together. Unfortunately, the person who had started it all kinda went of the rails last night and nuked the Discord over what we thought was a normal conversation/debate over a rules disagreement. All 11 of the guilds officers disagreed with him on a particular rule and he just kinda went off the deep end and couldn’t take feedback and as a result, apparently, burned the whole Discord overnight.

We’re all really disappointed because we have been putting in a lot of work, but we’re gonna do it all over again because we really love the community we’d been building.

Here is the new Discord we got up and running! Please join us, forgive the inconvenience and let us rebuild this great community.

https://discord.gg/kzsyXdFvc

Hey all, really hoping we can reunite this very good husky/malamute/shepherd looking boy with his owner. I saw a found dog flyer at our PO in Fraser and I just know somebody is really missing their buddy. He is currently at the Grand County Animal Shelter in Granby. He was found at the second creek area of Berthoud Pass with no collar. I figured I’d share to the Denver subreddit in case someone was up for a day hike and lost him.

For folks who receive updates on their ballot status via BallotTrax, did you receive confirmation of your mail-in ballot being received/counted this year?

I put my ballot out last week but haven’t received an update. I logged into BallotTrax, and it says my ballot has not been received.

I will go in and check my Ring footage to confirm whether it was picked up, but curious about others’ experiences this year.

Thanks!

Fuck you Jared Polis.

Wondering if anyone has seen it in person and if they think it is worth paying extra admission to see it? Thanks!

FYI there's an AMA on Amendment 82 happening today from 12:30-2:30 over on r/colorado, with the No on 82 campaign manager and a natural resources law professor from DU.

Hi everybody! I'm one of the foster coordinators for Rocky Mountain Puppy Rescue, a local nonprofit animal rescue that operates out of the Denver Metro area. I've posted on here once before, but we had such an amazing wave of support last time that I wanted to reach out to you all again

I'm gonna be really honest: we have nearly 100 cats and dogs scheduled to arrive this Thursday (10/29) from various shelters, and I'm worried we won't have enough fosters to give them all a safe place to land. Since we're a 100% foster-based rescue, we really rely on our network of volunteer fosters to help give the animals we rescue a safe place to land -- unfortunately, what this means is that when we can't find a foster to step up for a cat or dog, that cat or dog stays at the shelter

Since our primary goal is reducing the number of animals that get put down, we do our best to pull our cats and dogs from shelters that suffer from overcrowding and high euthanasia rates. Over half the dogs pictured above are currently being held in a New Mexico shelter whose euthanasia rate averages around 50% per year. Again, these animals aren't being euthanized because of behavioral or medical issues -- it's just because the shelter system is so overcrowded and lacks the resources to care for the number of animals coming into their system

But yeah, since we operate mainly out of the Denver Metro area, we're looking for local people who'd be willing to temporarily open their homes to a cat or dog until they can be adopted!

If you're interested in helping out, or even if you just want to learn more, I really encourage you to fill out a foster registration form below -- this isn't a firm commitment to foster any animal in particular, it mostly just gives you access to info on which animals are still in need of fosters!

Dog Foster Registration Form

Cat Foster Registration Form

I know posts that sum up to "volunteers needed" feel a lot like ads or self-promo, so if anybody has any questions about how the rescue works or what fostering actually entails, I'm happy to answer in the comments below! And if you've ever fostered with us before (or with any other rescue for that matter) feel free to chime in with your thoughts and your experiences!

I know the ones to stay away from, but I’d love to hear about a place you had a great experience at.

Pretty sick right

I’m recovering from a double mastectomy, and I expect to be out of work for the next month, maybe month and a half. I’m fortunate that the acute recovery wasn’t that intense, but the problem with that is I’m now fully left to my own devices.

I can walk, eat, act with pretty much all mobility sans upper body: I can’t lift more than 5-10lbs right now, or stretch/twist my torso, lift my arms above my head. My pre op routine had me at the gym every morning and then working with my hands in an extremely social environment eight hours a day. I don’t remember how long it’s been since I’ve had this much idle time, maybe a decade?

I’ve been filling up my schedule best I can— writing, figure drawing, a weekly craft night with friends. I’ve read two books in three weeks, I’ve started writing my own. Money is tight as I’m on FAMLI right now, does anyone have recommendations for local free or cheap events, clubs, museums, anything?

If context helps, I’m a queer trans person in my early thirties who’s willing to get down with pretty much any experience as long as people are accepting. As I mentioned, I’m working on a collection of stories right now, I love drawing with charcoal and ink. Folk music, punk, electronic (not wubby, sorry) are some of my favorite music genres. Big movie fan, I try to hit local theaters with speciality showings as often as I can. I’m politically inclined, if there are any mutual aid orgs//collectives that need nonphysical labor, I’d love to do The Work. ASL or Spanish 101 groups would be awesome.

I’m trying not to waste away staring at screens right now. I feel like an Australian Shepard that’s about to tear up the furniture. Please, please help me add more enrichment to my environment.

I am a recent graduate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder. I am looking to volunteer my time in a way that gets my hands dirty and expands my opportunities!

I have limnological, mammological, and ornithological experience!