Supreme Court will hear heinous challenge to conversion therapy ban
The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy under the guise that it infringes upon the First Amendment.
Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor and practicing Christian, filed the petition just days after President Donald Trump won the 2024 election.
Conversion therapy is a discredited practice designed to convert people in the LGBTQ+ community to heterosexual or cisgender, and it has been criticized as dangerous and even deadly. More than 20 states have laws banning conversion therapy, though there is not a federal law banning the practice.
Chiles, who is being represented by conservative Christian advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, argues that it is her right to practice conversion therapy with underage clients who share her “Christian worldview.”
“The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients,” ADF President Kristen Waggoner said in a statement.
“Significantly, the law only prohibits counseling conversations in one direction,” the statement continued. “For example, it allows counseling conversations that aim to steer young people toward a gender identity different than their sex but prohibits conversations that aim to help them return to comfort with their sex when they desire that.”
ADF’s argument seems to echo the ongoing Supreme Court Case U.S. vs. Skrmetti, which challenges Tennessee’s ban of gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The court is slated to make a decision in the case by July.
And in a similar vein, Trump signed an executive order shortly after taking office halting federal funding for medical professionals who provide gender-affirming care to anyone under the age of 19. This order continues to be tied up in court after a judge extended a block in early March.
The Supreme Court has previously turned away challenges to conversion therapy bans, like in 2023 when it struck down a similar challenge to Washington’s ban. But at the time, conservative Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority opinion, writing that they would have granted a review.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh also indicated that he would have allowed a review, writing that “this petition asks us to consider whether Washington can censor counselors who help minors accept their biological sex. Because this question has divided the courts of appeals and strikes at the heart of the First Amendment, I would grant review.”
It seems like the Supreme Court’s conservative bench is finally getting what it wanted.