The justices are hearing a lawsuit from a Christian counselor challenging a Colorado law that prohibits counseling aimed at talking to kids about their sexual orientation or gender identity. Kaley Chiles, with support from President Donald Trump's Republican administration, argues the law violates her freedom of speech by barring her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy for kids.
Colorado has not sanctioned anyone under the 2019 law, which exempts religious ministries. State attorneys say it still allows any therapist to have wide-ranging, faith-based conversations with young patients about gender and sexuality.
“The only thing that the law prohibits therapists from doing is performing a treatment that seeks the predetermined outcome of changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity because that treatment is unsafe and ineffective,” Colorado state attorneys wrote.
Chiles contends her approach is different from the kind of conversion therapy once associated with practices like shock therapy decades ago. She said she believes “people flourish when they live consistently with God’s design, including their biological sex," and she argues evidence of harm from her approach is lacking.
Chiles says Colorado is discriminating because it allows counselors to affirm minors coming out as gay or identifying as transgender but bans counseling like hers for young patients who may want to change their behavior or feelings. “We're not saying this counseling should be mandatory, but if someone wants the counseling they should be able to get it,” said one of her attorneys, Jonathan Scruggs.
Chiles is represented by 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 who doesn’t want to work with same-sex couples and successfully challenged a Colorado anti-discrimination law in 2023.
The group's argument in the conversion therapy case also builds on another victory from 2018: A Supreme Court decision found California could not force state-licensed pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to provide information about abortion. Chiles should also be free from that kind of state regulation, the group argued.
