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\n\tLaws banning conversion therapy for minors in more than 20 states are under threat, thanks to a Supreme Court case challenging Colorado\u2019s legislation against the practice on the basis of free speech. Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Chiles v. Salazar<\/em>, in which Kaley Chiles, a licensed therapist from Colorado, who is Christian, claims that the state\u2019s 2019 law prohibiting conversion therapy for minors violates her First Amendment rights. This marks the first time a case has come before the Supreme Court involving conversion therapy \u2014 a discredited practice that attempts to change an individual\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity.<\/p>\n \n\tChiles filed a lawsuit in 2022 claiming that the state prevented her from working with patients who want to live a life \u201cconsistent with their faith\u201d \u2014 meaning LGBTQ+ individuals seeking therapy to make them heterosexual or cisgender. She is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, an anti-LGBTQ+ organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group.<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, the state of Colorado \u2014 represented by Patty Salazar, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies \u2014 argues that the aim of its law is to regulate licensed therapists by prohibiting a practice that\u2019s been scientifically discredited and associated with serious harm. The Colorado law includes a religious exemption for non-licensed therapists \u201cengaged in the practice of religious ministry.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tOver a 90-minute session, representatives for Chiles argued Colorado\u2019s law infringes on her freedom of speech, while the lawyer for the state of Colorado countered that it\u2019s the state\u2019s responsibility to protect its citizens from harmful medical therapies. The Court\u2019s decision is expected in June 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA key question in this case is whether a state can regulate conversion therapy directed to change a young person\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity just as it would regulate other harmful efforts by healthcare providers,\u201d says Suzanne B. Goldberg, a law professor and director of the Sexuality and Gender Law Clinic at Columbia Law School. \u201cAs Colorado\u2019s lawyer explained, providers are licensed by the state, and members of the public should be able to count on that person to practice within the established standard of care and not cause them harm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tBased on the questioning of the six conservative justices, the Court appears poised to rule in favor of Chiles. \u201cA number of justices expressed skepticism about Colorado\u2019s law, including through questions about whether the First Amendment prohibits states from regulating speech based on the speaker\u2019s viewpoint, even if it is speech by a licensed therapist,\u201d says Goldberg.<\/p>\n \n\tStill, Casey Pick, director of law and policy at The Trevor Project, the world\u2019s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to suicide prevention and crisis intervention for LGBTQ+ youth, remains hopeful that after today\u2019s arguments, \u201cthe justices will listen to the clear and abundant evidence\u201d demonstrating the dangers of conversion therapy, she said in a statement emailed to Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cMental health treatments, like medical treatments, are supposed to be neutral, competent, and based on evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tDouglas C. Haldeman, PhD, a clinical psychologist who began working with survivors of conversion therapy in 1983, isn\u2019t as confident about the outcome. \u201cWe are in an era of unprecedented opposition to science, to reality, to the truth, and given that anything can happen if you say we\u2019re going to start creating public policy based on prejudices or biases, then we\u2019re lost from the get go,\u201d he tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m not optimistic about what the outcome will be with this particular Supreme Court.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe current medical consensus is that conversion therapy doesn\u2019t work and causes harm. According to a 2021 resolution from the American Psychological Association, conversion therapy is associated with an extensive list of long-lasting social and emotional consequences, including depression, anxiety, suicidality, substance abuse, a range of post-traumatic responses, feelings of anger and grief, loss of connection to community, damaged familial relationships, self-blame, guilt, and shame. Similarly, research from The Trevor Project published in the American Journal of Public Health<\/em> found that when conversion therapists pressure LGBTQ+ youth to change their identity, they are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide.<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\t\u201c[Conversion therapy] often resorts to guilt, coercion, and trauma in a disturbing effort to make someone believe they are less than simply because of who they are,\u201d Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. \u201cThese appalling practices can destroy families, worsen mental health outcomes, and rob people of their faith communities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tHaldeman saw the harms of conversion therapy firsthand during the more than 30 years that he had a psychological counseling practice in Seattle where he treated survivors. \u201cOne of the things I noticed that made it so difficult is that not only were [clients] not able to change their sexual orientation, but they felt even worse about themselves because they couldn\u2019t,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd that was a double shame that caused many people to become acutely suicidal.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tToday\u2019s oral arguments come nearly four months after the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for minors in U.S. vs. Skrmetti<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tIn Skrmetti, the Court held that a state legislature could prohibit a form of healthcare \u2014 gender-affirming healthcare \u2014 based on its view of the medical evidence. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson brought this up during proceedings. \u201cI\u2019m wondering why this regulation at issue here isn\u2019t really just the functional equivalent of Skrmetti,\u201d Jackson asked an attorney for the Trump administration, which sided with Chiles. \u201cIt just seems odd to me that we might have a different result here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tGoldberg agrees. \u201cHere, the state of Colorado has prohibited conversion therapy to minors based on the very strong evidence that conversion therapy is harmful to minors,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt would arguably be inconsistent for the Court to allow some states to prohibit specific forms of gender-affirming healthcare because they believe it\u2019s harmful, while stopping other states from prohibiting conversion therapy because they believe it\u2019s harmful.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhen the Court decides in June, in addition to ruling in favor of Chiles or the state of Colorado, the justices could also opt to send the case back to the lower court to review Colorado\u2019s reasons for banning conversion therapy for minors, Goldberg explains.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIf the Court issues a narrow ruling and sends the case back to a lower court to evaluate the state\u2019s arguments in favor of the law, that would suggest that states can continue to take seriously their responsibility to evaluate standards of care used by their licensed healthcare providers,\u201d Goldberg says. \u201cIf the Court strikes down Colorado\u2019s law because it interferes with Chiles\u2019 freedom of speech, that would risk interfering with states\u2019 authority to protect their residents from harmful practices by licensed therapists.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tHaldeman believes the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Chiles would be disastrous. \u201cThere are more than 20 states and numerous local jurisdictions that prohibit conversion therapy by licensed practitioners,\u201d he says. \u201cAll of those ordinances would then be challenged and we would likely no longer have those protections. And when those guardrails are gone, it\u2019s open season again, and we are back 50, 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs Goldberg points out, it\u2019s important to keep in mind that conversion therapy bans are not a partisan issue. \u201cThey have been supported by both Republicans and Democrats who have been persuaded by extensive professional evidence showing that the so-called therapy is ineffectual and harmful, and by individual young people and their families who have shared heartbreaking stories of suffering harm from therapists attempting to change their sexual orientation or gender identity,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \n\tRegardless of the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in this case, Haldeman says that it\u2019s not time to be discouraged.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\t\u201cIt is more important than ever for all marginalized people, but particularly for members of the LGBTQ+ community, to maintain a focus on self care, on solidarity, on resistance,\u201d Haldeman says. \u201cNot to give up, not to become overwhelmed and depressed, but to try and remember there will be a time when we get through this.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIf you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Dial 988 or chat at<\/em>\u00a0988lifeline.org<\/em>\u00a0to reach the\u00a0<\/em>988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline<\/em>.<\/em>\u00a0The Trevor Project<\/em>, which provides help and suicide-prevention resources for LGBTQ+ youth, is<\/em>\u00a01-866-488-7386. Find other international suicide helplines at Befrienders Worldwide (<\/em>befrienders.org<\/em>).<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Laws banning conversion therapy for minors in more than 20 states are under threat, thanks to a Supreme Court case challenging Colorado\u2019s legislation against the practice on the basis of free speech. Today, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Chiles v. Salazar, in which Kaley Chiles, a licensed therapist from Colorado,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26569,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1844,15308,160,452,159,628],"class_list":{"0":"post-26568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-case","9":"tag-conversion","10":"tag-court","11":"tag-hearing","12":"tag-supreme","13":"tag-therapy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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