The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to challenge Colorado laws that prohibit mental health therapists from receiving conversion therapy to LGBTQ youth.
The court will hear the case during its next term, beginning in October and held until June 2026.
Conversion therapy is a practice aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity to coincide with heterosexual or cisgender norms. Most mainstream healthcare institutions primarily believe it is effective and potentially harmful.
However, many social conservatives argue that people who hold religious beliefs against homosexuality should be allowed to register their children.
Caylee Chile, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs, Colorado, challenged the state’s ban on convertible therapy in 2022, claiming it prevented individuals dealing with “gay charm and gender identity confusion” from “prioritizing above emotions.” hill.
In contrast to methods such as aversive therapy, forced vomiting, and electroshock, Chile, who uses “talk therapy” only in her practice, claims she wants to work with adults and minors seeking Christian counseling.
She says she helps clients achieve their “statemented desires and objectives,” including eliminating “unwanted sexual attraction” and learning to “grow in experiences of harmony with the body.”
Chile, defending the freedom of anti-LGBTQ organizational alliances, argues that Colorado’s ban on youth conversion therapy forced clients to stop offering therapy that allows them to question and examine sexual orientation and gender identity rather than fully accept it.
She argues that even if doing so creates conflict with religious beliefs, the ban forces young people to effectively “steer” them as LGBTQ.
She also argues that the law violates her clients’ religious beliefs and freedom of speech, as well as her own religious beliefs that homosexuality is sinful and that gender is fixed from birth.
A federal judge rejected the Chilean lawsuit in 2022, finding that the state’s ban on conversion therapy did not illegally prevent what she could tell her minor clients.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit panel upheld a lower court’s decision the following year. Arbitration The law regulates professional conduct, not speech.
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear Childs’ case comes after the High Court rejected previous attempts to overturn restrictions on conversion therapy in other states. In December 2023, the High Court refused to hear the challenge of Washington’s state’s ban on conversion therapy. They also previously rejected attempts to overturn the same ban in California and New Jersey in 2017 and 2015, respectively.
By filing a lawsuit, the Supreme Court, governed by conservatives by a margin of 6-3, could issue an ruling overriding all statewide bans or regulatory conversion therapy regulatory restrictions in 28 states, including a ban on reimbursements for engaging in practice using taxpayer dollars.
Critics of conversion therapy argue that people who are exposed to conversion therapy, whether young or adults, experience many negative outcomes, including feelings of self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts.
a Survey from 2013 By the group for conversion therapy survivors, 84% of those who received conversion therapy said their experiences continue to bother them, continue to cause different types of harm, causing “neurological breakdowns,” to embarrassment, depression, self-loathing, and suicide thoughts and feelings.
A 2020 study by the Williams Institute found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults who received conversion therapy were 92% more likely to have lifelong suicidal ideation than their colleagues and 75% more likely to plan a suicide attempt.
Similarly, a 2022 Peer Review Study The Trevor project found that people exposed to practices are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who are not.
Beyond that, critics have proven that even states where conversion therapists are banned continue to operate under the radar, and that the mere presence of conversion therapists does not end the practice.
According to 2023, an estimated 1,300 conversion therapists continue their operations nationwide. Trevor Project Analysis.
Naturally, LGBTQ groups have denounced what they see as an attempt by the conservative majority to overturn yet another protection of LGBTQ people and allow for further elimination of the LGBTQ community.
“Conversion therapy is not a real treatment,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project, in a statement. “This is a harmful and exposed practice that has been shown to be more than twice as many LGBTQ+ young people attempting suicide in the past year…
“The end of conversion therapy is not about partisan politics, nor about “free speech.” Ending conversion therapy means protecting young people from clear and proven psychological harm and saving young lives. ”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
