Health Update: Health Update: What is conversion therapy? What to know amid Supreme Court decision – What Experts Say– What Experts Say.
SCOTUS overturns Colorado ban on conversion therapy
Supreme Court rules 8 to 1 that Colorado conversion therapy ban violates free speech rights of a licensed Christian counselor.
In the latest legal setback for LGBTQ+ Americans, the Supreme Court said Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy” for young people infringes on the free speech rights of a Christian counselor. But, what is conversion therapy?
Conversion therapy, sometimes called “reparative” or “reorientation” therapy, is defined by Psychology Today as a “pseudoscientific and discredited practice that attempts to force LGBTQ+ individuals to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
More than a dozen major mental health and medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association, have renounced conversion therapy as ineffective and harmful.
“Research has consistently found undergoing conversion therapy to be associated with negative mental health outcomes such as depression, substance abuse and an increased risk of suicidality,” Psychology Today notes on its website.
The American Psychological Association adds these practices are “not evidence-based” and “stem from the scientifically discredited belief that being LGBTQ+ is a mental illness that should be cured.”
The American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness in 1973.
In the latest case, Colorado officials argued that the law − which is similar to restrictions in about half the states – regulates professional conduct, not speech. But the Supreme Court sided 8-1 with the therapist challenging the ban.
Despite certain state restrictions, LGBTQ+ advocacy group The Trevor Project said in 2023 it found more than 600 professional counselors who say they can help alter someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to treat the dangerous practice of conversion therapy as constitutionally protected speech is a tragic step backward for our country that will put young lives at risk,” Trevor Project CEO Jaymes Black said in a statement after the ruling.
Others have also spoken out against the ruling.
Dr. Aisha Mays, adolescent medicine physician in California and Board Member with Physicians for Reproductive Health, called conversion therapy “life-threatening.”
“As a physician who cares for young people every day, I know how critical it is for their health and wellbeing to have access to health care that affirms who they are,” she said in a statement. “I am a researcher, a scientist, and an adolescent health care provider who has cared for LGBTQ youth my entire career, and as such, I know that the consensus is clear: conversion therapy is dangerous and causes harm.”
Kaley Chiles, the Colorado therapist part of the case who said she practices from a Christian perspective, called the decision “a victory for counselors and, more importantly, kids and families everywhere.”
Justice Elena Kagan, one of the two liberals who voted with the court’s six conservatives, said Colorado may be able to regulate counseling as long as the state’s rules are “viewpoint-neutral.”
“Fuller consideration of that question, though, can wait for another day,” she wrote in a concurring opinion joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “We need not here decide how to assess viewpoint-neutral laws regulating health providers’ expressions because, as the Court holds, Colorado’s is not one.”
Contributing: Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY