WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices heard arguments Monday over whether Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy” for kids is a violation of a Christian counselor’s First Amendment rights.
Kaley Chiles, with support from President Donald Trump’s administration, argues such laws passed by about half of U.S. states wrongly bar her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.
Colorado says its measure simply regulates licensed therapists by barring a practice that’s been scientifically discredited and linked to serious harm.
But the court’s conservative majority questioned whether states can restrict talk therapy aimed at changing feelings or behavior while allowing counseling that affirms kids identifying as gay or transgender. Justice Samuel Alito said the law “looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination.”
The case blends two trends in the recent decisions of a court that’s backed several claims of religious discrimination and taken a more skeptical view in LGBTQ+ rights cases. The court is also expected to hear a case this term over which sports teams transgender athletes can join. A decision in Tuesday’s case is expected by June.
Chiles contends her approach is different from the kind of conversion therapy once associated with practices such as shock therapy decades ago. She said she believes “people flourish when they live consistently with God’s design, including their biological sex.”
Her attorneys argue the bans make it difficult for parents to find a therapist willing to work on gender identity unless the counseling specifically affirms transition.
“Ms. Chiles is being silenced, and the kids and families who want her help are unable to access it,” said attorney James Campbell. Violating the law carries potential fines of $5,000 and license suspension or even revocation.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson questioned why the Colorado law should be struck down, while the court upheld a different measure from Tennessee that bans transition-related treatments for transgender kids.
“I’m just, from a very, very broad perspective, concerned about making sure that we have equivalence with respect to these things,” she said. The Justice Department counters that Tennessee’s law is different because it involves medical treatments rather than conversations between a patient and their therapist.
Families who have spoken in favor of restrictions include Linda Robertson, a Christian mom of four from Washington state whose son Ryan underwent therapy that promised to change his sexual orientation after he came out to her at age 12. The techniques led him to blame himself when it didn’t work, leaving him ashamed and depressed, she said. He died in 2009, after multiple suicide attempts and a drug overdose at age 20.
“What happened in conversion therapy, it devastated Ryan’s bond with me and my husband,” she said. “And it absolutely destroyed his confidence he could ever be loved or accepted by God.”
Colorado argues its law does allow for wide-ranging faith-based conversations, and it exempts religious ministries. No one has been sanctioned under the 2019 law.
State attorneys say that therapy is health care, and that Colorado has a responsibility to regulate it.
“Providers have a duty to act in their patients’ best interest and according to their professional standards. The First Amendment affords no exception,” Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson said.