On March 6, 2026, the Supreme Ct. decided whether or not Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy was violating evangelical therapist Kaley Chiles’s right to freedom of speech in a case Chiles vs. Salazar. Here are the arguments:
Twenty states and The District of Columbia have similar laws. Chiles lawyer, Alliance Defending Freedom, attests that “kids deserve real help affirming their bodies are not a mistake, counseling that represents biological reality so they will get the help they need.” The therapist contends that she only is concerned with talk therapy and not setting into motion actual conversion or reparative therapy, a practice that does exists in some states and according to the American Pediatric Association as well as other Medical Associations find harmful and doesn’t work. In fact, it can cause depression, suicide and anxiety and does not make you straight. Conversion therapy has been known to use electric shock and nausea-inducing chemicals to change your sexual orientation.
Since 2019, Colorado’s statue was adopted and “prohibits any practice or treatment that tries to change or eliminate or reduce a minor’s gender expression or sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex. ” In an 8-to-1 ruling, Justice of the Supreme Court Neil Gorsuch favored Kaley’s argument. He wrote “that the first amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
Dissent for the case came from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who stated “that the the First Amendment does not bar a state from preventing its licensed talk therapists from using speech in the United States.” While the case stated that while Colorado allowed therapists to speak in favor of a minor’s gender identity or sexual orientation, it prohibited them from expressing the opposite viewpoint.
Not everyone agrees. Duke law professor, Richard Katshee, contends that if talk therapy is designed as a treatment plan than it should face the same government regulations as other medical and professional practices. Matt Soper, who is a Republican in the Colorado House, criticizes the bill because he thinks it lacks a cap on recovery on recoverable damages or a statute of limitations on claims.
Other states will be looking at Colorado as precedents for bans. Remember the baker Jack Phillips who wouldn’t make a wedding cake for a gay couple in Denver, Colorado and won his case or the Kentucky County clerk Kim Davis who refused to grant a marriage license to same-sex couples because she didn’t believe in gay marriage. Where do you stand?
Sources: “How to Read Conversion Therapy Ruling” by Brie Anna J. Frank, U.S.A. Today, 4/1/26.
“In Win For Right, Justices Reject Gay Therapy Ban,” by Ann E. Marimow, The New York Times, 4/1/26.
When Your Child Is Gay: What You Need To Know
For more detailed advice, see book, co-authored with a mother of a gay son and a psychiatrist, Jonathan L. Tobkes, M.D.
