A Durango mother is accusing a former Colorado state senate candidate and her wife, a former Durango High School math teacher, of illegally harboring her transgender child, who left home in December.
La Plata County Sheriff’s deputies say Vivian and JoAnn Smotherman did nothing wrong by providing a place for Cynthia Stein’s child to stay after he left home following an argument with his mother. Deputies declined to force the teen, who turned 18 on Tuesday, to return home.
In a written statement Tuesday, the Smothermans called the accusations “categorically false, deeply defamatory, and extraordinarily dangerous.”
Vivian Smotherman, who is transgender, ran unsuccessfully last year as a Democrat in Senate District 6. Her wife, JoAnn Smotherman, taught math at DHS through June 2024. Both are outspoken advocates of LGBTQ rights.
The Daily Wire, a self-described right-leaning media outlet, posted a story Tuesday presenting the mother’s account. Events culminated on Jan. 5, when she and two other women went to the Smothermans’ home to retrieve her child, then 17. The teen had left home on Dec. 22. Some reports said he ran away, but the teen told law enforcement Stein had kicked him out and taken his house key.
Efforts to reach Stein for comment were unsuccessful Tuesday.
The Daily Wire story repeatedly used incorrect gender pronouns for Vivian Smotherman and the teen.
🚨Who do parents turn to when adults are housing their minor child without consent? Police, of course. But in this case? Watch as deputies laugh and mock a mother desperately trying to get her daughter away from those who groomed her and helped fund her emancipation—without… pic.twitter.com/si8OMoPgJg
— Colorado Parent Advocacy Network (@CPANColorado) March 25, 2025
Sheriff’s deputies responded to the Smothermans’ home on Jan. 5 and performed a welfare check, seeing no signs of distress, according to body camera footage posted online.
“A minor’s a minor and (the child) does not have my permission to be here,” Stein told deputies that evening while waiting in a car near the property.
A deputy explained the situation did not “rise to the level of law enforcement involvement” because no crime had been committed. The teen was not in distress, had left voluntarily and was free to leave the Smothermans’ home at any time.
“So, I’m sorry, you’re telling me that you’re not going to ...” Stein began.
“... physically rip (the child) out of that home? Yeah,” the deputy responded.
In a video produced by the Colorado Parent Advocacy Network, Stein said she believes “Joann Smotherman is responsible for my broken daughter thinking that all of her problems are because she’s truly a boy.”
Stein added that her “gut feeling” is that there “is something sinister behind it.”
“Smotherman stepped in and took advantage of my kid,” Stein told The Daily Wire. “She’s just inserted herself into my family, and I still can’t get her out.”
JoAnn Smotherman, in a brief interview, said she met the teen while teaching. In a statement, the couple said the teen had fled a “dangerous environment” and reached out to supportive networks.
“This was not about his gender,” the Smothermans wrote. “It was about compassion. It was about protecting a vulnerable young person when no one else would. We did not seek him out. We did not groom him. We offered safety, food, and support while he found his footing and began building a life on his own terms. That is not a crime. That is what decent people do.”
The couple said they have received threats of violence, including death threats, but are standing by their actions.
“This story is not just about us. It is part of a larger, coordinated campaign to vilify transgender people and the families – chosen or otherwise – who stand by them,” the statement read. “It aims to paint protectors as predators and erase the humanity of young people who deserve safety, dignity, and love. We will not be silenced by lies. We will not be intimidated by threats. And we will not apologize for doing the right thing. Our door was open when it mattered – and it still is.”
rschafir@durangoherald.com
