March 09, 2026 03:14 PM UTC

Prostitution Bill Blows Wad In Premature Rejection

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• by: Colorado Pols

As Jesse Paul reports for the Colorado Sun, a piece of controversial legislation we predicted wouldn’t survive its first committee hearing in the Colorado legislature will meet its ignominious end, as the sponsor of legislation that would have legalized prostitution betwixt consenting non-trafficked adults admits there is no appetite for this bill in our state/nation’s perpetually morally panicked political climate:

A bill that would have eliminated criminal penalties for prostitution in Colorado will be abandoned this week when it comes up for its first vote Wednesday in the state Capitol.

State Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat and main sponsor of Senate Bill 97, said the measure does not have enough support to clear the Senate Judiciary Committee, its first hurdle, and so he will ask that the measure be delayed until after the 2026 legislative session ends.

That will effectively kill the legislation.

We ask readers to please respect the solemnity of the legislative process as they read the next sentence:

Hinrichsen said he reached the decision after consulting with the sex workers who persuaded him to bring the bill. [Pols emphasis]

We’re 95% certain that what you’re thinking is not what Sen. Nick Hinrichsen was up to. Kidding aside, as we said before, Sen. Hinrichsen’s brief legislative white knighthood on behalf of the sex industry was academically well-intentioned, but in the end only supplied the ugly fringes of the internet with fresh speculative fodder about the state of Colorado– which they’ve already been led to believe is a hellhole of mandatory “assisted” suicide and sex changes for minors enforced by the replacement police formerly known as Tren de Aragua. That means in the end the whole effort was a political liability more than it advanced the underlying issue. It’s worth remembering that lawmakers are allowed to introduce pretty much anything they want, and mere introduction of a bill in no way indicates support from anyone other than the bill’s sponsors.

Sometimes the word of encouragement after a lawmaker’s bill dies is, “Better luck next year.” But in this case, we can’t say that honestly. As with so many other well-intentioned, socially progressive but politically fraught causes, legalized prostitution’s time in Colorado may indeed never come–at least not in our lifetimes. Under Democratic majority-plus control, our state has become a model (some would call it a petri dish) for progressive reform, but the voting public’s patience for social experimentation is not inexhaustible.

Just like Colorado was a Mecca for legal weed for years, if you need legal paid sex, you’ll always have certain counties in Nevada. Just not the big ones. It’s complicated.

If you really care to know, as with all such vices, you already do.