Supreme Court sides with Christian counselor

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 against a law banning “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ+ children in Colorado.

The high court majority ruled in favor of a Christian counselor who argued the law banning talk therapy violates her First Amendment rights.

Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist, said the Colorado law violated her right to free speech to counsel youth who have same-sex attractions and gender identity conflicts.

More than 20 other states, according to Religion News Service, have their own versions of a conversion-therapy ban.

Supreme Court opinions

Justice Neil Gorsuch said the law “censors speech based on viewpoint,” and the First Amendment, he wrote, “stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”

Liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor jointly supported Gorsuch’s opinion.

“Once again, because the state has suppressed one side of a debate, while aiding the other, the constitutional issue is straightforward,” Kagan wrote. “If the First Amendment prohibits anything,” she later added, “it is the ‘official suppression of ideas.’”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson issued the lone dissent, arguing the case is a matter of health, not free speech.

“Many states have now chosen to exercise their police powers to ban ‘conversion therapy’ based on the medical profession’s broad consensus that this medical treatment … is ineffective and harmful,” she said.

Reactions to the ruling

Interim Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Gary Hollingsworth called the ruling “a moment worth celebrating,” Baptist Press reported.

“Eight justices decisively rejected Colorado’s blatantly unconstitutional attempt to silence counselors from freely discussing issues of gender and sexuality with patients,” Hollingsworth said in a statement to Baptist Press.

“This is not only the correct constitutional outcome—it reinforces a conviction Southern Baptists have held for decades, that the state cannot coerce individuals to deny biblical truth or compel them to violate their religious beliefs just because it disfavors their viewpoint.”

Timothy Schraeder Rodriguez, a conversion therapy survivor, said in an interview with Religion News Service that conversion therapy continues in some form since the closing of the “ex-gay” organization Exodus International in 2013.

“A lot of people would assume it looks like military-style boot camps, electroshock therapy, or things like that. Most of the time, it’s happening in the church basement around the corner from your house,” Schraeder Rodriguez told RNS.

Chiles, according to the Associated Press, contends her approach is different from conversion practices performed decades ago.

AP reported Colorado disagreed with the ruling, saying its law allows “wide-ranging conversations about gender identity and sexual orientation and exempts religious ministries.” Colorado says the law prohibits therapy that attempts “to ‘convert’ LGBTQ+ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations,” according to AP.

Hollingsworth highlighted the Southern Baptist commitment to God’s creation and design.

“We reject efforts that seek to redefine or alter a person’s God‑given identity,” Hollingsworth said.

“Today’s ruling strengthens the freedom of counselors to speak from their convictions and protects the ability of Christians to minister with integrity and faithfulness.”