{"id":556996,"date":"2026-03-31T22:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/556996\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T22:28:11","slug":"supreme-court-rules-against-colorado-ban-on-conversion-therapy-for-lgbtq-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/556996\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rules against Colorado ban on \u2018conversion therapy\u2019 for LGBTQ+ kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Supreme Court<\/a> on Tuesday ruled against a law banning \u201cconversion therapy\u201d for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about two dozen states that ban the discredited practice. <\/p>\n

An 8-1 high court majority sided with a Christian counselor who argues the law banning talk therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court to decide if it meets a legal standard that few laws pass. <\/p>\n

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the court, said the law \u201ccensors speech based on viewpoint.\u201d The First Amendment, he wrote, \u201cstands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gorsuch\u2019s opinion drew support from liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor. <\/p>\n

A state could similarly not ban talk therapy designed to affirm a minor\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity, Kagan wrote. \u201cOnce again, because the State has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

In a solo dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that states should be free to regulate health care, even if that means incidental restrictions on speech. The decision, Jackson wrote, \u201copens a dangerous can of worms\u201d that \u201cthreatens to impair states\u2019 ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.\u201d <\/p>\n

The decision is the latest in a line of recent cases in which the justices have backed claims of religious discrimination<\/a> while taking a skeptical view of LGBTQ+ rights. <\/p>\n

Counselor Kaley Chiles, with support from President Donald Trump\u2019s Republican administration, said the law wrongly bars her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.<\/p>\n

Chiles contends her approach is different from \u201cconversion therapy\u201d practices from decades ago, like shock therapy. Her attorneys argued that the ban makes it hard for parents to find therapists willing to discuss gender identity with kids unless the counseling affirms transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look forward to being able to help them when they choose the goal of growing comfortable with their bodies,\u201d Chiles said in a statement. \u201cCounselors walking alongside these young people shouldn\u2019t be limited to promoting state-approved goals like gender transition, which often leads to harmful drugs and surgeries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado disagreed, saying its law does allow wide-ranging conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation and exempts religious ministries. The state says the measure simply bars using therapy to try to \u201cconvert\u201d LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations, a practice that has been scientifically discredited and linked to serious harm. <\/p>\n

The law doesn\u2019t violate the First Amendment, Colorado argued, because therapy is different from other types of speech since it\u2019s a form of health care that the state has a responsibility to regulate.<\/p>\n

Advocates for LGBTQ+ people condemned the ruling, as well as \u201cconversion therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a dangerous practice that has been condemned by every major medical association in the country. Today\u2019s decision does not change the science, and it does not change the fact that conversion therapists who harm patients will still face legal consequences,\u201d Polly Crozier, director of family policy at GLAD Law, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The 2019 law carries the possibility of fines and license suspension, but no one has been sanctioned under it. The ruling is expected to eventually make similar laws in other states unenforceable. <\/p>\n

Chiles was represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization that has appeared frequently at the court in recent years. The group also represented a Christian website designer<\/a> who successfully challenged Colorado anti-discrimination law because she didn\u2019t want to work with same-sex couples.<\/p>\n

Twenty-three states have laws barring health care providers from offering \u201cconversion therapy\u201d for minors, and another four have some restrictions, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an advocacy group that tracks policies that impact LGBTQ+ people.<\/p>\n

The high court agreed to hear the case after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld the law. Another Atlanta-based appeals court, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, had struck down similar bans in Florida.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow the AP\u2019s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/us-supreme-court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Court<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Supreme Court<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0U.S. Supreme Court<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled against a law banning \u201cconversion therapy\u201d for LGBTQ+ kids…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,2858,3,15304,10501,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-556996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-court","tag-news","tag-supreme-court","tag-u-s-supreme-court","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}