Colorado lawmakers passed legislation offering broad legal protections for those claiming to hold transgender identity, a statute which a coalition of Christian pastors vows to defy.

The legislation, known as the Kelly Loving Act, was signed by Colorado Democratic Governor Jared Polis last month. The new law has provisions classifying so-called “deadnaming” and “misgendering” as discriminatory acts, as well as requiring schools to adopt new policies allowing children to select their chosen names and wear clothes belonging to the opposite sex.

Many of the most severe provisions, such as sections threatening to disfavor parents who affirm biblical sexual ethics in child custody battles, were removed from the bill after public outcry.

Chase Davis, a pastor at The Well Church in Boulder, Colorado, said in comments to The Sentinel that the coalition of pastors which emerged to fight what is now the Kelly Loving Act will continue to resist the unrighteous legislation. “Legal action is the next step,” Davis remarked. “I’m confident there will be lawsuits against the state for this patently unconstitutional law.”

Davis noted that “pastors in our coalition are openly defying” the new legislation by violating the law from “behind the pulpit,” explicitly denying the validity of so-called transgender identity.