Colorado's first transgender representative responds to comments on house floor

Colorado's first transgender lawmaker is speaking out about what she calls transphobic comments that were made on the House floor.

"I'm not gonna let you walk all over me and people like me and I'm gonna speak out," said State Rep. Brianna Titone. 

The democrat is on her third term representing Arvada. Friday, she stood up for trans rights after comments were made by House Republicans on the floor Thursday. 

"I didn't really expect an ERA resolution to kind of go sideways the way that it did," Titone said. 

Thursday, the House discussed a resolution urging congress to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. 

Republican Representative, Scott Bottoms of Colorado Springs, offered an amendment limiting how the ERA be interpreted. 

"Should not be interpreted to include a right to abortion nor to expand the definition of sex to include anything other than the originally understood distinction between biological males and females. There is such a thing as XX and XY and no matter how much you lie to yourself and change it and frame it," Bottoms said.   

The Speaker of the House interjected and asked the Representative to "be respectful." Titone tried to get the attention of Bottoms and other speakers. 

"I was going like this like 'look at me, look at me' because I wanted them to see me and talk to me about it," Titone said. 

Titone took to the House floor on Friday to respond. 

"Whether you like it or not I'm your colleague. Whether you believe me or people like me should exist, I do exist," Titone said Friday on the House floor.       

Titone said she felt disrespected and called the comments "dangerous." 

"You could debate an issue, but when you start to repeat the tropes and the dangerous rhetoric that's going around, that hurts people," Titone said. 

Titone says she welcomes respectful conversations with lawmakers, who disagree with her and that some of her republican colleagues thanked her for her remarks. 

The amendment introduced by Bottoms failed, while the ERA resolution did pass.