“For the kids” is a truism that has worn thin with voters. All too often, it’s used as a political ploy, typically to pitch another tax hike to the public.

For a change, three proposals on the Nov. 3 mail ballot truly are for the children — protecting them, quite literally, in fundamental ways most Coloradans care about deeply.

And Propositions 133, 134 and 135 don’t ask for any money; they ask the public simply to beef up legal safeguards for our kids to defend them from predators as well as political agendas.

The Gazette editorial board urges a “yes” vote for 133, 134 and 135 — and lauds the coalition of parents and others who advocated for the proposals and petitioned them onto the ballot with the signatures of rightly concerned voters statewide.

Proposition 133 on the Nov. 3 ballot would make up for a shameful dereliction of duty by Colorado’s legislature. It refused last spring to step up the penalties for the despicable crime of sex-trafficking children. All seven majority Democrats on the House Judicia

... Propositions 133, 134 and 135 don’t ask for any money; they ask the public simply to beef up legal safeguards for our kids to defend them from predators as well as political agendas.

ry Committee voted to kill a measure that would have done so.

The parent groups Protect Kids Colorado and Protect Our Children sprang into action. Proposition 133 represents their smart and much-needed end run on cowardly, criminal-coddling lawmakers.

It mandates life in prison without parole for human trafficking of a child for sexual servitude. The crime is currently a Class 2 felony, and the ballot proposal would upgrade that to Class 1.

The proposal is a no-brainer. Life behind bars is the punishment that fits this repugnant crime. It’s something all voters should be able to agree on — even if not all politicians have the guts. Proposition 134 would end the absurd quest by fringe political activists to let biological boys claiming gender dysphoria compete on otherwise allgirl teams in K-12 and collegiate school sports in Colorado. The proposal would confine athletes to the team or sport of their designated sex “as determined by … their biological reproductive system.” They still would be able to compete in coed sports as always, and the law would create an exception to allow a female to participate on a male-designated team or sport if there is no female team available.

Not long ago, few would have thought such a policy necessary. But a new wave of gender politics regrettably has called common sense into question. This measure wisely would push the politics back out of youth sports — and let kids be kids. Proposition 135 is another necessary response to today’s gender politics. Colorado bars the sales of alcohol or vapes to minors; it requires them to be buckled in for a ride in the car, even in the back seat. It’s all because kids can’t protect themselves and sometimes, the adults around them don’t act responsibly to protect them, either.

It’s at least as warranted for the law to prevent the life-changing, surgical alteration of a child’s basic anatomy to conform to what some may, for a time, think is their true gender. Adults can do as they wish with their bodies, but as with broader laws against child abuse and neglect, the state has a vital interest in stepping in to shield children from grave harm. Toward that end, Proposition 135 prohibits sex-change surgery on minors and bars health-care professionals from performing such operations. It also prevents paying for them with state or federal funds.

Let’s put Colorado’s kids out of reach of predators — and politics. Vote YES on Propositions 133, 134 and 135.

“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” Thomas Aquinas, Italian theologian