WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today for a case challenging the constitutionality of Colorado’s law banning “conversion therapy,” a practice that seeks to help those with homosexual inclinations or gender dysphoria to live in accordance with their God-given sex or sexuality.
“There is ongoing harm” to children “every day” because of Colorado’s ban, said attorney James Campbell, when asked by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor why they shouldn’t send the case, Chiles v. Salazar, back to the lower courts.
Campbell is representing Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor who seeks to help minors “who want to change some expression, behavior, identity, or feeling associated with their ‘sexual orientation or gender identity,’” according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Chiles says that Colorado’s law violates her freedom of speech by prohibiting licensed counselors like her from engaging in counseling conversations that help clients to think, feel, and live in harmony with their natural sex and sexuality.
Significantly, the law, which was signed by Colorado’s Democrat homosexual Governor Jared Polis in 2019, only prohibits counseling conversations in one direction. For example, it allows counseling conversations that push young people toward a “gender identity” different than their sex but prohibits conversations that help them grow comfortable with their sex when they desire to do that.
The law also threatens severe penalties, including suspension and even revocation of the counselor’s license. Polis has often supported his state’s crackdown on the free speech rights of Christians, including baker Jack Phillips and pro-life pregnancy centers.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier this year the law is legal because it regulates “professional conduct.”
“One of the things that are so problematic with Colorado’s law is that it undermines the well-being of children with gender dysphoria,” Campbell said before the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
He pointed out that while “Colorado accepts that up to 90% of kids who struggle with that will work their way through it and realign their identity with their sex,” its ban on conversion therapy dictates that children who would like help with that have to be turned down.
This summer, the U.S. government and 21 states, in addition to counseling groups, detransitioners, mental-health researchers, free-speech advocates, and families who rely on counseling to help their children, filed more than 50 friend-of-the-court briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Chiles’ case.
An excerpt from one brief filed by Colorado families discusses their concerns with the ongoing harm caused by their state’s conversion therapy ban: “As a result of her parents’ inability to find a counselor to address her need, the child’s emotional distress deepened. The delay in obtaining counseling, coupled with the therapist’s refusal to address her concerns, led to greater confusion, depression, and ultimately suicidal thoughts.”
