The US Supreme Court has struck down a Colorado so-called “conversion therapy” ban, opening the doors to similar bans nationwide being struck down as well. “Conversion therapy” refers to a type of therapy used to help an individual change an unwanted sexual orientation or gender identity. Such therapies are typically provided by Christian counselors. Colorado banned such therapies in 2019 through its Minor Conversion Therapy Law, claiming such therapies were harmful to the mental well-being of LGBTQ+ youth. “No young person should ever be shamed by a mental health professional into thinking that who they are is wrong. Mental health care should be ethical and affirming for all people — including LGBTQ young people,” Daniel Ramos, executive director of the LGBT group One Colorado, said at the time of the law’s passing.

Christian counselor Kaley Chiles sued Colorado, stating the law discriminated against her. She contended that her therapies were in no way meant to “convert” clients but to assist them “with their stated desires and objectives in counseling, which sometimes includes clients seeking to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with one’s physical body.” In an 8-1 to ruling, the Supreme Court justices ruled that the lower federal courts that upheld the state’s ban should have applied a more stringent standard of review to determine if Chiles’s First Amendment rights were being violated. This sends the law back to lower courts for further scrutiny, but Justice Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion, implied that the law would be found in violation of the First Amendment, stating it “censors speech based on viewpoint.” “Colorado’s law does not just regulate the content of Ms. Chiles’s speech. It goes a step further, prescribing what views she may and may not express,” he added.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only Justice to dissent. “Chiles is not speaking in the ether; she is providing therapy to minors as a licensed healthcare professional. Under our precedents, bedrock First Amendment principles have far less salience when the speakers are medical professionals and their treatment-related speech is being restricted incidentally to the State’s regulation of the provision of medical care,” she wrote.

Liberals bemoaned the ruling, calling “conversion therapy” dangerous. “This Supreme Court decision puts our kids in danger,” wrote Representative Ilhan Omar on X. “‘Conversion therapy’ is abuse—it’s an unsafe, discredited practice that inflicts lasting trauma on LGBTQ+ youth. We need to ban this reprehensible practice nationwide.” Detransitioner Chloe Cole, however, celebrated the ruling. “’Conversion therapy’ in its lawful definition includes talk therapy that doesn’t affirm a trans identity,” she wrote. “This means that until this SCOTUS ruling, psychologists in blue states were forced to participate in the trans delusion Trans is a mental illness and now it can be treated.”