US Supreme Court to hear challenge to Colorado ban on gay ‘conversion therapy’

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a Christian therapist’s challenge on free speech grounds to a Democratic-backed Colorado law banning “conversion therapy” intended to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The justices took up an appeal by licensed counselor Kaley Chiles of a lower court’s decision rejecting her claim that the 2019 statute unlawfully censors her communications with clients in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech. The state has said it is regulating professional conduct, not speech.

The justices are expected to hear the case during their next term, which begins in October.

Colorado is among more than two dozen states and the District of Columbia that restrict or prohibit conversion therapy for minors.

Chiles is a Colorado-based therapist and practicing Christian who “believes that people flourish when they live consistently with God’s design, including their biological sex,” according to court papers.

Colorado’s law prohibits licensed mental healthcare providers from engaging in “conversion therapy” with patients younger than age 18, with violations punishable by disciplinary action before a state licensing board. The law defines conversion therapy as efforts “to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”

The office of Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser said in response to the Supreme Court’s action on Monday that states have long regulated medical practices to protect patients from harmful professional conduct.

“Colorado’s law protecting young people from unscientific and cruel gay conversion therapy practices is humane, smart and appropriate, and we’re committed to defending it at the Supreme Court,” a spokesperson said.

Chiles is represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that has challenged other LGBT protections.

Kristen Waggoner, the group’s CEO, president and general counsel, said, “The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients.”

Democratic Colorado Governor Jared Polis, the nation’s first openly gay man to be elected as a state governor, signed the bill into law. Polis has called conversion therapy “a tortuous practice that has long been widely discredited by medical and mental health professionals.”