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Colorado, USA
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THE BIG FOUR’S COLORADO BLUEPRINT: How Four Wealthy Donors Flipped a Red State (and Artificially Accelerated Transgender and Gender Identity Policies Through Massive Funding, Not Grassroots Momentum)
Picture Colorado in the summer of 2004: a solidly Republican state where the GOP controlled the governor’s mansion, both legislative chambers, most congressional seats, and key statewide offices. Four wealthy Democrats: Tim Gill, Pat Stryker, Jared Polis, and Rutt Bridges, gathered quietly and launched what they called “The Blueprint.” It wasn’t a spontaneous uprising of everyday voters but a calculated, venture capital-style operation funded by their personal fortunes. As detailed in the 2010 book 'The Blueprint' by Adam Schrager and former Republican legislator Rob Witwer, the 2014 documentary 'Rocky Mountain Heist', and Jennifer Bilek’s 2020 First Things article “The Billionaires Behind the LGBT Movement,” this effort first seized political power for the Democrats in recent times in Colorado. Then it built a sophisticated funding machine that critics say unnaturally and artificially propelled transgender and gender identity policies forward: not through broad, organic grassroots support from ordinary people, but through coordinated billions from a handful of ultra-wealthy donors operating largely out of public view.
What started as targeted electoral spending evolved into a top-down philanthropy network that amplified “gender identity ideology” globally and in Colorado law. Early gay rights efforts had roots in small, community-driven groups facing real stigma. After gay marriage become legal, the push for transgender policies appeared to be a natural next step - but it was heavily engineered by elite money, secretive strategy sessions, and international channels. The result? Rapid policy changes that many feel outpaced public consensus.
The Gang of Four and the 2004 Electoral “Heist”
The group, nicknamed the “Gang of Four” or “Four Horsemen", bypassed traditional party structures by forming the Colorado Democracy Alliance. They funneled millions through 527 independent-expenditure groups, voter-turnout operations, and aligned nonprofits, treating politics like a startup investment.
- Tim Gill, Quark software founder, sold his stake in 1999 for about $500 million. Motivated by Colorado’s 1992 Amendment 2 (an anti-gay measure later overturned), he endowed the Gill Foundation with roughly $200 million (inflation-adjusted) for LGBT causes. It has since granted hundreds of millions more to the transgender cause.
- Pat Stryker, medical-device heiress to Stryker Corporation, channeled funds through her Bohemian Foundation.
- Jared Polis, openly gay ProFlowers entrepreneur (now Colorado’s governor since 2019), and Rutt Bridges, software & petroleum entrepreneur, completed this quartet.
In 2004, their donations overwhelmed Republicans: Stryker spending over $850,000, Gill nearly $775,000, Polis and Bridges over $400,000 each. Of $3.6 million in 527 organizations spending, nearly two-thirds came from these four. Democrats flipped both legislative chambers, for the first time in decades. By 2006, they added the governorship and more seats. Total early spending exceeded $20 million, locking in a Democratic “trifecta” that has endured for two decades.
'The Blueprint' explains the mechanics in plain terms: dubiously-funded nonprofits, targeted ads, and ground games that caught the GOP flat-footed. The 'Rocky Mountain Heist' documentary calls it a “heist” by a “shadowy cabal,” visualizing a “blue blob” spreading from Colorado as a warning of national replication.
The Funding Pipeline: From Electoral Power to LGBT Philanthropy
Bilek’s article ties this political takeover directly to LGBT advocacy. Gill and Pat Stryker, with the two other wealthy philanthropists used “ruthless political strategies” to turn Colorado blue while directing roughly half a billion dollars into groups advancing LGBT agendas. Gill introduced Pat’s brother Jon Stryker (openly gay man) at the 2015 GLSEN Respect Awards, recalling how they had “plotted, schemed, hiked and skied together” while “punishing the wicked and rewarding the good.”
Jon Stryker founded the Arcus Foundation in 2000. It poured $58.4 million into LGBT programs from 2007–2010 alone; with Jon personally giving over $30 million from Stryker stock. The family company, started by their grandfather, hit $25.1 billion in annual revenue in 2025 (up 11.2% from 2024), with deep roots in surgical supplies and medical tech. Bilek highlights this medical industry backdrop as relevant context for the scale of later funding priorities.
The Artificial Pivot from Gay Rights to Transgender and Gender Identity Push
Here is where the “not grassroots” reality becomes clearest. Early gay-rights activism grew organically from small communities facing discrimination. But after same-sex marriage victories, the focus shifted dramatically to transgender issues and gender identity ideology. Bilek documents how Arcus and Gill networks built on the Colorado donors’ infrastructure artificially accelerated this through top-down philanthropy, not widespread public demand or bottom-up organizing.
In 2008, Arcus hosted a key meeting in Bellagio, Italy, with 29 international leaders (including Jon Stryker). Michael O’Flaherty (rapporteur for the 2006 Yogyakarta Principles, which applied international human rights law to sexual orientation and gender identity) attended. Bilek notes the Principles “planted the seeds to bring in and attach gender-identity ideology to our legal structures.” O’Flaherty, a former UN Human Rights Committee member, is now Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, in office at his new job since April 2024, based in Strasbourg.
From Bellagio emerged the LGBT Movement Advancement Project (MAP) to coordinate advocacy on gender identity in law, education, and culture. The LGBTI Core Group, an informal UN-linked network of member states (including the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights) formed with Arcus-funded participants like OutRight Action International. Arcus also backed the U.N with funding, alongside Amnesty International and GLSEN. Grants targeted Transgender Europe, ILGA, the Transgender Law Center, ACLU, Center for American Progress, and the 2015 Global Trans Initiative (at least $20 million committed and surpassed). These programs trained activists in “political activism, leadership, transgender law, religious liberty, education, and civil rights.”
The pattern is clear: This is not a natural evolution driven by everyday people. It is a billionaire-orchestrated infrastructure with half a billion spent in Colorado alone, plus hundreds of millions more donated strategically globally from Arcus and Gill, that manufactured rapid cultural and policy acceptance. Public perception framed it as organic “progress,” as meant, but the funding records, donor quotes, and coordinated meetings reveal a top-down strategy using wealth to bypass traditional grassroots organizing.
Colorado as the Proof: Policies Under Governor Polis
With the political safe haven secured, one of the original Four, Jared Polis, became governor in 2019. The Democratic trifecta delivered swift transgender policies:
- 2019 (Jude’s Law / HB 19-1039): Simplified gender marker changes on birth certificates (M/F/X) with no surgery, doctor’s note, or court order required; banned conversion therapy for minors.
- 2025 (Kelly Loving Act / HB 25-1312): Signed by Polis on May 16, 2025 (effective October 1, 2026), it expands anti-discrimination laws to treat intentional deadnaming or misgendering as discriminatory in workplaces, schools, and public settings; eases name/gender document changes.
- Early 2026: Bills advanced to seal minors’ name-change records for privacy.
These built directly on the donor-funded base. What feels unnatural to many was how quickly policies advanced once the money secured the levers of power. It also bring up the ethics and moral foundation of a governor like Jared Polis, who seems to have funded himself to immense power with false equivalence to an organically elected official.
The Deceit Debate: Manufactured Momentum vs. True Civil Rights
Trans rights activists call the moves of the Big Four savvy advocacy for equality. Opponents argue they are inherently deceptive. The trans/gender identity movement publicly appears as grassroots civil rights evolution. In reality, it seems driven by a tiny circle of billionaires using secretive roundtables, dark money, and philanthropy to scale ideology (including UN human rights channels), like they manipulated Colorado’s politics. The half-billion-dollar figure, Gill’s “plotted and schemed” quote, Arcus’s medical-fortune ties, and the Bellagio-to-UN pipeline all point to manufactured momentum rather than broad societal demand. Colorado served as the perfect laboratory before national and global export.
The Legacy of Deceit:
Two decades on, Colorado remains Democratic-controlled. The model inspired donor networks elsewhere. Gill and Arcus foundations continue granting millions annually. U.S. LGBTQ philanthropy totaled $209.4 million in 2023, with trans-specific funding still prominent. Polis is still governor of colarado, though his term ends in November 2026 and cannot be elected again. Whether you see the Big Four as visionary or elite operators, their 2004 effort of electoral flip plus sustained, targeted use of millions of dollars, clearly and unnaturally accelerated transgender and gender identity policies far beyond what organic grassroots movements alone could have achieved. It remains a case study in how concentrated wealth can reshape law, culture, and international norms. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Stay silent as the transgender industry and those standing to profit sway policy, or righteously fight the power?
REFERENCES (verified as of April 2026)
1. Schrager, Adam, and Rob Witwer - The Blueprint* (2010).
2. Rocky Mountain Heist (2014).
3. Bilek, Jennifer @bjportraits: “The Billionaires Behind the LGBT Movement.” published in First Things, January 21, 2020.
4. Arcus Foundation grant records and Global Trans Initiative updates (2007–2025).
5. Stryker Corporation 2025 revenue annual results
6. Colorado legislative records: Jude’s Law (2019); Kelly Loving Act (HB 25-1312, signed May 2025)
7. Council of Europe: Michael O’Flaherty Commissioner records and 2026 activities.
8. Gill Foundation and LGBTQ funders tracking reports (2023–2025).
All details cross-checked against public records, foundation filings, legislative histories, and recent reporting for accuracy.
#Colorado #Politics #Policy #BigFour #FourHorsemen #ethics #JaredPolis #VOTE #Republican #Democrat #ballot #elections
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
A Duke University camp socially transitioned a minor during a three week stay and offered to hide it from her parents:
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
The position of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner should not come as a surprise and in fact is the only position that she can take in order to try be consistent and coherent to herself and others given her overarching views and opinions.
We must understand that the position she expressed is the only position one can organically arrive at, if one - as she does- a) conflates sex and gender identity b) disregards the material reality of women in favor of women being a feeling or an identity. c) disregards that certain reproductive processes are tied to being of a certain sex.
I have genuinely tried to understand this position and to debate it with her to no avail. There is one point where we fundamentally differ and that I think underpins her positions on this: Commissioner Cody believes that if we were to recognize that women and girls have historically been discriminated against based on their sex (intersecting with other grounds), that would mean that we accept that that this discrimination is biologically determined and that this discrimination is acceptable or justified.
This reasoning is flawed. We would not follow the same logic with any other form of discrimination, say for example racial discrimination. Naming that black people are often and have been often discriminated against because they are black does not suggest that such discrimination is justified, nor a tacit acceptance of it, nor does it suggest that they should be forever locked in a condition of being racially discriminated against.
The answer to a serious problem cannot be to stop naming the cause, in the hope that this cause would magically go away or that its impact on the lives of people would soften or vanish.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Anna Cody at Senate estimates said that protections designed to protect breastfeeding women from being discriminated against would also extend to “induced lactation in a biological male”. Read the full story: bit.ly/4zb29gC
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
Michael Knowles Is Stunned by a Trans Widow’s Story About Her Divorce and Custody Battle
Michael Knowles: What’s so hard for me to understand is the idea of choosing a fetish over your family.
You have a choice: live up to your marriage vows, be a husband to your wife and a father to your children, or indulge a fantasy by putting on a dress.
To think that someone would choose that over their wife, children, and family obligations, and then be celebrated for it, is difficult to understand.
Tracy Shannon: In our case, it destroyed the family and wrecked the marriage. We had to leave our family home. I’d been a stay-at-home mom for 10 years, had no job, and had homeschooled my children.
We ended up homeless, and I had to live with my parents for a couple of years while I got back on my feet financially. The court initially ordered him to pay just $500 a month in child support for three children.
It’s insulting to the family that society thinks this is okay because children are supposedly resilient.
Michael Knowles: If I never heard that phrase again, it would be too soon. It’s used to justify child abuse. People say, “Don’t worry, kids are resilient,” even when their parents are fighting and their education is being neglected.
Tracy Shannon: They’re not that resilient. My children have faced really difficult consequences. They might look like they’re doing fine, but it’s been a long journey.
Michael Knowles: How old are they now?
Tracy Shannon: They’re all over 18. My youngest with him is 19, and I also have a 20-year-old and a 24-year-old.
Between the three of them, there have been six suicide attempts of varying seriousness, and one child was hospitalized for an extended period.
People who disagree with me would say this happened because I didn’t accept their ideology. In fact, his lawyers wanted me to take the children for what they called re-education when we were divorcing.
Michael Knowles: Who wanted that?
Tracy Shannon: His lawyers. I was also sued for full custody after the divorce because I objected to him having his partner spend the night with my children. We had a morality clause in Texas that addressed this.
Michael Knowles: Hold on. This happened in Texas? The state supposedly considered the most conservative in the country?
Why you lying, Betsey? There is no genital exam. It's called a cheek swab. It's less invasive than a COVID test. Calm down. It doesn't "hurt" girls to keep boys out of girls sports, despite these creepy scenarios fear-mongering.
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
The "genital exam" is one of the most ridiculous lies being circulated against the ballot initiatives in Washington and Colorado to make sure that girls don't have to play sports against boys. Both ballot initiatives require medical verification of sex prior to enrollment on a school sports team.
The ballot language in Washington specifies three methods of verification: "The student's reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels."
"Reproductive anatomy" is satisfied simply by a doctor's note.
"Genetic makeup" can be satisfied with a cheap, easy, painless, cheek swab (see below).
Testosterone levels would be a blood test.
The vast majority of students will simply get a doctor's note - which will add no cost or time to their annual doctor's visit which is already required as a condition to play scholastic sports.
The only reason medical verification is needed at all is that these states have allowed falsification of birth certificates, driver's licenses and other ID so that the drafters of the ballot language could not simply rely on them.
ufhealth.org/conditions-and-…
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
When 4.4 million dollars opposes popular Girls’ Sports and Protecting Minors from “Gender” Surgery—overshadowing spending in favor by 20x, where’s all that money coming from?
Oh look, it’s the usual suspect. ACLU and the billionaires who took over Colorado.
Claims of “grassroots” revealed to be more of the same supranational NGO network described by @DataRepublican
Colorado’s citizen-led ballot measures to protect girls sports and protect kids from s*x-change surgeries are being fought by an amorphous infrastructure of multimillionaire-funded foundations such as Open Societies, the Tides network, and Colorado’s Gill Foundation. These foundations filter money through organizations such as Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and One Colorado to create a mirage of “grassroots” opposition to ballot measures supported by a broad spectrum of Colorado voters.
The @TheRMVoice report below.
Colorado has two propositions this year that were grassroots efforts - put on the ballot by volunteers collecting thousands of signatures. An effort that went completely ignored by mainstream media except to vaguely oppose without bringing much attention to what the ballots actually propose. They are very simple propositions - Prop 134 would keep girls sports for girls again and Prop 135 would prevent irreversible sexually mutilative "transgender surgeries" on minors. Anyone would common sense would agree these are basic child protective measures. However, in Colorado, we have a lot of trans industry opposition to this by many groups that have sprung up or been diverted to the cause of gender ideology. They fund dedicated campaigns against protecting girls sports and to promote sexually mutilative surgeries. Polls have shown the average Coloradan believes in protecting girls sports and children's bodies, so where is this coming from? @TheRMVoice looks at the money trail, and the funders behind the funders.
rockymountainvoice.com/2026/…
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
Today is apparently "Intersex Awareness Day," and a writer at the Trevor Project chose to honor people with developmental conditions by...lying about the nature and prevalence of their conditions for political gain.
The article just regurgitates the same tired arguments that have been thoroughly debunked many times, such as that "sex" refers to a collection of traits, that so-called "intersex" conditions are "as common as red hair" (1-2%), and that people with these conditions are not classifiable as male or female.
Lying to people about the nature and prevalence of their developmental condition does not help or support them. It exploits them.
I'm not going to write a formal response, because I've already debunked these arguments countless times. So I'll just leave you with a link to my most recent scholarly article on the topic: "Why There Are Exactly Two Sexes."
🔗link.springer.com/article/10…
Letting boys into girls sports and therefore their locker rooms, restrooms and chances of winning at their own sports violates girls privacy, safety and fairness. Vote YES! to Prop 134 to keep girls sports for girls, #Colorado. It's a no-brainer! #savegirlssports #savewomenssports
WATCH: A biological male absolutely dominates the offensive glass in this girls' high school basketball game.
Henry Hanlon scored 29 points and led his team to a 59-33 victory. He has a bright future in the WNBA.
These girls trained their whole life just to be posterized by a gender-confused man while leftists cheer. Videos like this show the tangible consequences of the Democrats' radical LGBTQ agenda.
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
NEW: At least 15,437 Washington minors had a transgender-related diagnosis on their insurance claims from 2017 to 2023.
In 2022, that included 1 in 58 teen girls.
A new @ManhattanInst analysis of insurance-claims data 🧵
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
This article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal is academic medical malpractice. It uses confusing gender jargon and incorrect pronouns while discussing an obvious and important health risk of elective hysterectomies and oorphorectomies (removal of the ovaries): Trans men are women and putting them into menopause at an early age causes health problems due to the sudden cessation of estrogen production.
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
🚨Today, Texas Children’s Hospital has officially launched their Detransition Clinic 🚨
Under the settlement, TCH must provide multidisciplinary detransition-related care FREE OF CHARGE for five years, including endocrinology, surgery, primary care, fertility counseling, mental health services, social work, and speech pathology.
I extend my heartfelt gratitude once again to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and my attorneys at the Burke Law Group for their extraordinary dedication, sacrifice, and tireless efforts throughout this fight. Their commitment helped turn a painful and difficult chapter into an opportunity for meaningful change. @KenPaxtonTX @BurkeLawTweets
I think of all the detransitioners who have suffered in silence, been dismissed, and fought desperately to have their voices heard. This win is for them.
I hope TCH’s admirable effort to fund and launch Americas first detransition clinic becomes a turning point for the entire country. That this clinic is not the exception, but the first of many.
Today’s a good day. ❤️
Link⬇️
Colorado Principled Physicians retweeted
In Australia 🇦🇺 “Nurses are to be paid double time to assist with “gender-affirming" surgery in Tasmania's largest public hospital, while those assisting with emergency surgery in the same hospital on the same day receive 25 per cent less pay.”
It literally has a clause that excludes surgeries for cancer and other issues. You're out here openly lying to promote sexual surgery on minors on behalf of the trans industry. Why so keen to sexually literally mutilate kids, ProgressNow #Colorado? Completely lost your minds. Vote YES! on Prop 135, save confused kids from irreversible sexual modifications!
Prop 135 would ban care that alters a child's sex characteristics. That means blocking treatment for kids with rare cancers and reproductive conditions, and targeting trans youth. Medical decisions belong with doctors and families. Vote NO. #copolitics progressnow.co/proposition-1…
