I personally don’t see why, even if you disagree with the science behind it, it’s controversial to consider intentionally dead-naming or mis-gendering a person as discriminatory in nature. I don’t have to understand or agree with another person to give them the dignity of just addressing them as their preferred name or pronoun. We do it with married women, Popes, people with nicknames because they don’t like their given names, etc.
I do think the issue of what entails a violation of Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act or what the punishment is for violating it is worth questioning but merely adding this to the existing law isn’t itself bad. So I don’t think you should be jailed for misgendering someone, but I also don’t think you should be jailed for using a slur. Having the two be considered the same just doesn’t feel like an issue in itself.