A group of Colorado and national LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations filed an amicus brief this week defending Colorado’s 2019 law banning conversion therapy for minors in a case challenging the law before the U.S. Supreme Court.
One Colorado and Rocky Mountain Equality, two Colorado-based LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, as well as PFLAG, the National Center for Youth Law, the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, the National Health Law Program, and Services and Advocacy for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Elders filed the brief arguing that the conduct of health care professionals is subject to regulation by the state and outlining the proven harms of conversion therapy on LGBTQ+ youth.
“As organizations that have worked with LGBTQ survivors of conversion therapy, amici are well acquainted with the severe, long-term harm that conversion therapy causes for individuals, families, and communities,” the brief reads. “Colorado’s statute protecting minors from conversion therapy by licensed professionals is not only a reasonable means of addressing these harms, it directly and narrowly advances important, and indeed compelling, governmental interests.”
The case, Chiles v. Salazar, concerns a Colorado state law that bans conversion therapy, the practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation, such as to eliminate same-sex attraction, or gender identity. Conservative religious law firm Alliance Defending Freedom represents the plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, a Colorado Springs counselor who argues the Colorado law violates a counselor’s right to free speech by prohibiting certain conversations related to gender and sexuality.
The named defendant in the case is Patty Salazar, executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies. The Supreme Court decided to hear the case in March, and will hear arguments during its term that starts in October. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office is defending the state in the case.
The 2019 law prohibits licensed psychiatrists and mental health care providers from “engaging in conversion therapy” with patients under 18 years old, though it does not prevent providers from sharing information on conversion practices offered by religious entities or others who are not prohibited by the law.
Bruce Parker, chief operating officer of Rocky Mountain Equality, said that conversion therapy is an outdated practice that “devastates the lives of young people and families.”
“Conversion therapy is not therapy, it is abuse,” Parker said in a statement. “Colorado’s law is a carefully crafted, evidence-based safeguard that ensures LGBTQ youth receive care and support that protects, rather than harms.”
The brief filed by the advocacy organizations argues that conversion therapy “divides youth from their families and promotes parental rejection of LGBTQ children.” It says the resulting family rejection harms LGBTQ youth in ways that can persist into adulthood, affecting their physical and mental health.
“Rather than strengthening family bonds, conversion therapy fractures them, creating an adversarial dynamic that pits parents against their children,” the brief says. “The therapy’s fundamental premise—that core aspects of a child’s self are wrong and must be changed—sends a message of conditional love.”
The resulting family rejection and separation caused by conversion therapy leads to more societal harms, including increased rates of homelessness, placement in foster care, need for mental health care and involvement with the juvenile justice system, the brief argues.
About half of U.S. states and Washington, D.C., ban conversion therapy, and the American Medical Association opposes it. The Human Rights Campaign, a national organization that advocates equality for all LGBTQ+ people, says “every mainstream medical and mental health organization” has rejected the practice for decades and that it can lead to depression, anxiety, drug use, homelessness and suicide, particularly for minors.
Other amicus briefs in support of the Colorado law were filed this week by national advocacy groups including The Trevor Project and the Conversion Therapy Survivor Network, as well as Democratic attorneys general from 21 states and nearly 200 Democratic members of Congress. An equal number of Republican-run states and a long list of conservative religious organizations were among those who filed briefs in support of the petitioners in June.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Oct. 7.
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This article originally appeared in Colorado Newsline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
