Appeals court denies attempt to block Colorado’s conversion therapy ban

A federal appeals court declined to block enforcement of Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors, saying the law does not restrict free speech but instead legally regulates conduct.

House Bill 1129 was enacted in 2019. It bans state-licensed mental health providers from trying to change a minor patient’s gender identity or same-sex sexual attractions. In a 2-1 decision handed down on Monday, a three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law and struck down a request for an injunction.

Kaley Chiles is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado Springs who sometimes provides counseling on matters of gender and sexual identity. She views counseling as an outgrowth of her Christian beliefs, which condemn same-sex sexual relations as sinful. She filed suit claiming the law infringed upon her free speech rights.

Filing briefs supporting the law were One Colorado, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group; the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the national LGBTQ+ civil rights legal advocacy group; and Born Perfect, NCLR’s survivor-led program to fight conversion therapy.

“We are extremely pleased with today’s decision, which allows Colorado to continue protecting its LGBTQ children and adolescents from the dangers of conversion therapy,” Chris Stoll, senior staff attorney at NCLR, said in a statement. “These discredited practices, which falsely promise to be able to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, have been rejected as unsafe by every major medical and mental health organization in the country.”

“Born Perfect applauds the Tenth Circuit for ensuring that Colorado can continue to protect youth from the dangers of conversion therapy,” Mathew Shurka, Born Perfect’s co-founder and chief strategist, said in a statement. “Advocates and survivors like me are getting the reassurance we need, that every child is Born Perfect.”

“We are delighted that Colorado's youth will remain protected from conversion therapy,” Nadine Bridges, executive director of One Colorado, said in a statement. “Research has shown that conversion therapy can cause increased rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse, homelessness, self-harm, and suicide. LGBTQ+ youth are especially at risk, as are families who are misled into believing these dangerous practices can ‘prevent’ their children from being who they truly are.”

Chiles filed the suit with the help of the right-wing Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) legal group. Displeased with the decision, ADF referred to the law as “CO’s Counseling Censorship Law” in a post to social media.

ADF counsel Cody Barnett also took issue with the ruling’s finding that counseling is not speech.

“Counseling is speech, not conduct, and it must be treated as such under the First Amendment,” Barnett said following the decision. “The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients.”

Chiles and ADF vowed to appeal the court’s decision.