LGBTQ Groups: Banning Conversion Therapy Promotes ‘Supportive Parent-Child Relationships’

A group of LGBTQ advocacy organizations asked the Supreme Court Tuesday to uphold a Colorado law that bans conversion therapy for minors.

In a “friend of the court” brief, the organizations said Colorado’s law “promotes supportive parent-child relationships.”

According to the groups, conversion therapy “divides youth from their families and promotes parental rejection of LGBTQ children,” causing “a host of individual and social harms for LGBTQ youth.” 

By banning conversion therapy, they said, Colorado reduces “the likelihood that youth will leave their homes and require services to address the multiple harms resulting from family rejection and separation.”

The organizations, including PFLAG, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, and One Colorado—which describes itself as the state’s leading LGBTQ advocacy organization—filed their argument as an amicus brief in Chiles v. Salazar.

That case was brought by Kaley Chiles, a Colorado-based counselor who says Colorado’s law violates her right to free speech by favoring “the expression of some views over others.” Chiles, a Christian, says the Colorado law only bans what it considers anti-LGBTQ speech.

According to Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the case on Chiles’ behalf, “When Chiles counsels young people with gender dysphoria, Colorado allows her to speak if she helps them embrace a transgender identity.” 

“But if those clients choose to align their sense of identity with their sex by growing comfortable with their bodies,” ADF wrote in its brief, “Chiles must remain silent or risk losing her license, her livelihood, and the career she loves.”

However, Colorado argues its law simply bans one specific treatment that is “unsafe and ineffective.” 

“The First Amendment allows states to prohibit treatment that violates the standard of care,” Colorado wrote, “and the fact that substandard treatment often involves words does not change this constitutional analysis.”

Chiles’ Supreme Court appeal follows a Tenth Circuit decision rejecting her claim because it said her counseling was “professional conduct,” not speech. Now, she asks the Supreme Court to reverse that decision and overturn Colorado’s law as unconstitutional.

Oral arguments in the case are set for Oct. 7.

The post LGBTQ Groups: Banning Conversion Therapy Promotes ‘Supportive Parent-Child Relationships’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.