Evangelical therapists have a First Amendment right to engage in “conversion therapy” with LGBTQ clients despite solid medical evidence that such treatment is ineffective, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In an 8-1 ruling March 31, the high court ruled against a Colorado law that banned conversion therapy, a controversial practice that seeks to help people “pray away the gay” through practices such as revulsion conditioning and spiritual devotion. The practice is popular in evangelical circles, particularly with so-called “biblical counselors” often supported by local churches.
Kaley Chiles
The Colorado case, Chiles v. Salazar, was brought in 2022 by counselor Kaley Chiles challenging Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy for children. Chiles claimed the ordinance impinges on her First Amendment right to free speech by prohibiting her from expressing deeply held religious views during therapy sessions. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in March after lower courts refused to pause enforcement of the law while litigation continued.
Colorado’s 2019 statute prohibits “any practice or treatment” that tries to change a minor’s “gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
Eight of the court’s nine justices — including Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor — sided with Chiles and said such counseling constitutes protected speech. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in an opinion read aloud from the bench.
At least 20 other states have laws similar to Colorado’s barring conversion therapy. All those laws are now in jeopardy.
Major medical groups including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association have officially denounced conversion therapy as ineffective and harmful.
Nevertheless, the Supreme Court majority ruled such counseling practices must be considered protected by the First Amendment.
Ketanji Brown Jackson
“Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety,” Justice Neil M. Gorsuch wrote for the majority. “But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
In her dissent, Justice Jackson warned of “catastrophic” repercussions if states cannot regulate some kinds of speech by licensed professionals such as those that “risks grave harm to Americans’ health and well-being.”
“The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of scalpel,” she said.
Colorado has been Ground Zero for litigation brought by evangelical Christians seeking to define religious liberty as allowing them free reign in discrimination against the LGBTQ community. Those have included cases about wedding cakes, wedding websites and wedding photography.
Liberty Counsel is one of the foremost legal advocacy groups pushing these challenges in court. The group filed two amicus briefs in this case.
Liberty Counsel said Colorado’s law “relies heavily on ideology instead of sound science” and “should not stand because the First Amendment does not allow any state to dictate which counseling viewpoints may be discussed between a counselor and their client.”
Mat Staver
“The U.S. Supreme Court’s resounding decision in Chiles v. Salazar is a major victory for the integrity of the counseling profession,” said Liberty Counsel Founder Mat Staver. “This ruling ensures the government cannot strip the First Amendment away from licensed counselors and dictate a state-mandated ideology between counselor and client. Talk therapy is speech, and the government has no authority to restrict that speech to just one viewpoint. Counseling bans can now be struck down nationwide so that people can get the counseling they need.”
Others, including prominent voices in the LGBTQ community, vehemently disagreed, citing the lasting harm conversion therapy inflicts on those subjected to it.
“In siding with the plaintiff and striking at the protections established by Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law, the court has failed to uphold the responsibility of states to safeguard the well-being of vulnerable young people,” according to a statement from Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists.
“At its core, this case has never been about limiting faith or speech; it has been about preventing harm,” AWAB said. “So-called ‘conversion therapy’ has been widely discredited and condemned by leading medical and mental health authorities, including the American Psychological Association. Research and survivor testimony consistently demonstrate these practices increase the risk of trauma, depression and suicide among LGBTQ youth.
“Let us be clear: Conversion therapy is not ministry; it is abuse.”
Brandan Robertson
Brandan Robertson is a gay minister who was subjected to conversion therapy as a teenager. He founded the Devout Foundation to speak in favor of LGBTQ inclusion and against treatments such as conversion therapy.
“Today’s Supreme Court ruling is not a victory for free speech or religious freedom,” he said. “It is a victory for those who have long sought the legal right to harm queer children in the name of God, and we refuse to be silent about it.
“I know what conversion therapy does to a person. Because it happened to me. As a student at a Christian Bible college, I was subjected to so-called ‘healing prayer’ — taken to a dark, empty church where strangers poured holy water over my body, spoke in tongues and attempted to exorcise what they called the demon of my homosexuality. I left that room not healed, not changed — only ashamed, confused and deeply wounded. It would take years to undo the anxiety and depression that experience left behind.”
Robertson said he since has sat with “hundreds of people who gave conversion therapy a sincere try. Every single one still experiences same-sex attraction. They have not been healed. They have simply been taught to bury who they are. And that burial leads to anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation, outcomes documented not by activists, but by every major medical and psychological association in the world.”
The eight justices who voted against Colorado’s law looked at the evidence and ruled the opposite way, he said. “This is not a close call. The science is unambiguous. Conversion therapy does not change sexual orientation or gender identity. What it does is cause measurable, documented, lasting harm to the most vulnerable among us — our children.”
Rachel Laser
Robertson called on Congress to pass federal legislation protecting minors from conversion therapy in all 50 states. “We call on state legislatures to strengthen and defend their existing protections. And we call on every person of faith who believes that God’s love is expansive and unconditional to speak loudly and clearly: No queer child is a mistake. No queer person needs to be fixed. And we will not stop fighting until every child in this country is safe.”
From a religious liberty viewpoint, Americans United for Separation of Church and State President Rachel Laser linked the high court ruling to the influence of Christian nationalism in America today.
“The decision today delivered a win to Christian nationalists seeking to turn religious freedom into a weapon to harm others,” she said. “Shamefully, their target this time is vulnerable LGBTQ children who may now suffer from dangerous and widely discredited conversion ‘therapy’ practices. Religious freedom does not give anyone the license to harm children.”
She pointed a finger specifically at Alliance Defending Freedom, the James Dobson-founded group she claimed “spearheaded … a nationwide effort to force everyone to live by their narrow beliefs.”
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Here’s why yesterday’s Supreme Court hearing matters | Opinion by Jonathan Greer
Review of research underscores harms of conversion therapy and importance of family affirmation
Undoing the damage of conversion therapy | Opinion by Amber Wylde
Al Mohler’s curious defense of conversion therapy | Analysis by Alan Bean
Panelists make the Christian case against conversion therapy: It harms people