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Conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors heads to Supreme Court

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The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that could impact state laws across the country that ban “conversion therapy,” a controversial counseling practice for LGBTQ+ youth. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that could overturn or solidify state laws across the country that ban a controversial counseling practice for LGBTQ+ youth.

The case challenges a 2019 Colorado law that bans “conversion therapy” for children and teens. Conversion therapy is a collective term for efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ+ people. Sometimes called “reparative therapy,” it can range from talk therapy and religious counseling Electric shockspain-inducing Aversion therapy And physical isolation. The therapy has been widely discredited by medical groups.

More than half of the states According to the Movement Advancement Project, a left-leaning nonprofit research organization that tracks LGBTQ+-related laws and policies, including some led by Republicans, have banned or restricted the practice for children and teens since California became the first to do so in 2012.

In recent years, however, Republicans have worked to repeal the bans in several states with some success. A Opinion poll In June, Data for Progress, a liberal think tank, found that while less than half of Republican voters, 43%, support or strongly support conversion therapy, more than half – 56% – said the Supreme Court should allow states to ban it.

A decision expected next year in the Colorado case could have far-reaching implications for dozens of other states.

“I think we’re all really concerned about the impact,” said Cliff Rosky, a law professor at the University of Utah. Rosky helped with the design Utah’s 2023 law Ban licensed professionals from performing conversion therapy on LGBTQ+ youth. This measure approved unanimously the Republican-controlled legislature.

“We certainly hope that the court upholds the right of states to regulate the conduct of the therapists they license and to protect children from a deadly threat to public health,” he told Stateline.

The impact on other states’ laws would depend on the scope of the Supreme Court’s ruling. But most of these laws are similar to Colorado’s, Rosky said.

“Certainly a sweeping ruling against Colorado’s law would threaten the constitutionality of all other laws.”

In the case of Chile v. Salazar, a licensed counselor in Colorado Springs, Kaley Chiles, sued state officials in 2022 over a law that prohibits licensed mental health professionals from performing conversion therapy on clients under 18. She argues the law violates her First Amendment right to free speech and affects her ability to practice counseling in a manner consistent with her religious beliefs. Chiles is represented by the conservative religious law firm Alliance Defending Freedom.

“The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors,” said Jim Campbell, chief legal counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom. said in a press release when the group filed its opening brief in June. “Colorado’s law harms these young people by depriving them of caring and compassionate conversations with a counselor who can help them achieve the goals they desire.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, said in August press conference that the law does not prohibit a provider from sharing information or viewpoints with a patient, and that therapists are still permitted to discuss conversion practices of religious groups with patients.

But him called Conversion therapy is an “inferior, discredited practice.” Conversion therapy has been denounced by major medical organizations, including the American Medical AssociationThe American Psychological AssociationThe American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“This practice has historically attempted to force patients to change their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Weiser said. “But science says this practice is harmful. It doesn’t work.”

“Regardless of how it is carried out, this practice can cause real harm. This harm can include depression, self-hatred, loss of faith and even suicide.”

The key question in this case is whether Colorado’s law regulates professional standards of conduct and speech or whether it seeks to regulate free speech, said Marie-Amélie George, a legal historian who has published extensively on LGBTQ+ rights and is a law professor at Wake Forest University School of Law.

“What’s really interesting about these laws is that most licensed health care professionals don’t provide conversion therapy because professional organizations have generally condemned it as extremely harmful,” George told Stateline. After the mainstream mental health community rejected efforts to change people’s sexual orientation in the behind schedule 1980s, conversion therapy became “primarily the domain of religious and lay people,” she said.

State laws like Colorado’s do not prevent clergy and laypeople from engaging in conversion therapy, she said. They only target the tiny group of licensed mental health professionals who want to operate it.

In August, attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief Support the Colorado law. They argue that the First Amendment does not protect mental health practices from regulation if the state deems them risky or ineffective, and that states have a long and established history of regulating professional standards of care.

The decision in this case is expected to affect all conversion therapy bans in this country.

– Marie-Amélie George, professor at Wake Forest University School of Law

Colorado is not the only current battleground over conversion therapy, as conservative majorities in the courts, state legislatures and at the federal level have opened the door for Republican lawmakers and conservative Christian groups to reintroduce the practice.

Earlier this year, the Republican-controlled Kentucky Legislature passed one The invoice Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s meeting canceled Implementing Regulation 2024 which banned conversion therapy for minors. Beshear immediately vetoed the bill, but lawmakers overruled his veto in March.

In April, a coalition of Republican attorneys general from 11 states, led by Iowa and South Carolina, decided Appealed a January decision by a U.S. district judge to uphold a 2023 Michigan law this is similar to Colorado. It prohibits mental health professionals from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The case began with Catholic Charities from three Michigan counties filed a lawsuit challenging Michigan’s law in 2024 on behalf of a licensed therapist.

In July, a Virginia court partially overturned the state’s 2020 ban on conversion therapy for minors. Republican lawmakers in Michigan introduced The invoice in July to overturn their state’s ban, while Missouri’s Republican attorney general sued to lift local conversion therapy bans.

From the mid-1990s to the mid-2010s, LGBTQ+ rights advocates won many cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, said George, the Wake Forest professor.

“But in the years since, the Supreme Court has become more hostile to claims of LGBTQ+ rights,” she said. “I think given the court’s political environment, it will be fascinating to see what they do, given how they have handled other LGBTQ+ rights cases in recent years.

“States are very similar in the laws they enact, so the decision in this case will likely impact any conversion therapy bans in this country.”

Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at avollers@stateline.org.

This story was originally produced by Statlinewhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes West Virginia Watch, and is a 501c(3) public charity supported by grants and a coalition of donors.

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