DENVER — The Colorado House of Representatives passed a Democrat-backed bill on Tuesday expanding legal options for people with disabilities who are discriminated against in public spaces like restaurants, hospitals and libraries.
House Bill 23-1032 would make it easier to file a civil lawsuit in discrimination cases.
Only one Republican representative, Larimer County's Ron Weinberg, voted for the bill, which ultimately passed on the third reading, 45-17.
Weinberg’s Republican peers said they were concerned that the bill was a "slippery slope" toward over-litigation and cash grabs by injury attorneys.
Another Republican, state Rep. Richard Holtorf of Akron, took a different approach, likening people with disabilities to people who get hurt during the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.
“The running of the bulls in Pamplona, it's a beautiful thing," he said. "But you know what they don't do in Spain? If you're dumb enough to get on this road and run eight blocks, 10 blocks, and run of the ring, and you get hurt, you own it. And that's Spanish law, there's no liability. There's no lawsuits. You don't get to do any of that. Because you're responsible for the risks that you take in this running of the bulls.”
The bill's sponsor, state Rep. David Ortiz, D-Centennial, who himself uses a wheelchair, called Holtorf's comments ignorant.
“The absolute ableism and ignorance on display here against community living with a disability AND ANY MOVEMENT we try and make toward securing our basic human rights and #basicaccess is astounding,” Ortiz wrote in a tweet.
This isn’t the first time Holtorf’s comments from the House floor have caused controversy.
In 2021, Democrats confronted him for calling a colleague "Buckwheat" during a floor debate. The same year, he suggested state Sen. Tom Sullivan, D-Aurora, whose son was killed in the Aurora theater shooting, needed to "let go" of his son's murder.
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