The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday, asking if a Colorado law unconstitutionally censors the free speech of licensed counselors.
Colorado passed HB19-1129, the “Prohibit Conversion Therapy for a Minor Act,” in 2019, prohibiting licensed mental health professionals from offering therapy “to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado, challenged the ban based on her and her clients’ Christian beliefs. Some individuals with unwanted same sex attractions or sexual identity confusion want to live in line with their faith – and they seek help to do so.
The oral arguments ranged over a variety of topics, including Chiles’ motivation for wanting to help people, her clients’ desire for help living according to their faith values, whether “conversion therapy” has been proven to be harmful and why Colorado pushed a one-way agenda on therapists and clients.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed the initial lawsuit on Chiles’ behalf, explaining how her faith informs her counseling work:
Chiles views her work as an outgrowth of her Christian faith. Many of her clients are also Christians who seek her help because of their shared religious beliefs. These clients often believe “that God determines their identity according to what He has revealed in the Bible rather than their attractions or perceptions determining their identity.”
“Chiles has counseled minor clients who want to discuss their gender, sexuality, and identity. Some believe they are living ‘inconsistent with their faith or values” on these issues, resulting in “internal conflicts, depression, [or] anxiety.’”
They desire counseling – sometimes based on their faith – “to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with [their] physical body.”
But Colorado’s talk therapy ban prevented Chiles from working with these minors who simply want to live according to their faith.
“This law prophylactically bans voluntary conversations, censoring widely held views on debated moral, religious, and scientific questions,” ADF Chief Legal Counsel James A. Campbell argued before the court,
“Aside from this law and recent ones like it, Colorado hasn’t identified any similar viewpoint-based bans on counseling. These laws are historic outliers.”
Campbell pointed to a similar free speech case where a California law was challenged because it forced pregnancy resource centers to promote abortion. He also pointed to the decision in that case where “this Court protected professional speech, highlighting the dangers of censoring private conversations between professionals and their clients.”
Shannon W. Stevenson argued on behalf of the state of Colorado, pointing to two recent studies used to justify the ban. She told the justices:
And then I would direct you specifically to the Green study and the Turban study. The Green study looked at 34,000 13- to 25-year-olds who had gone through conversion therapy and, after controlling for other factors, found there was a two times rate of attempted suicides among that group.
And in the Turban study, Dr. Turban looked at 27,000 participants. This was specifically on gender identity change efforts, including people who had received those efforts under the age of ten. He looked specifically at childhood exposure and found association with adverse mental health outcomes in adulthood, including suicide ideation and attempts.
But in his closing arguments, Campbell debunked both studies.
“On the issue of studies, there was a reference to the Green and Turban studies. All of those studies relied on biased sampling [and] self-reporting. They conflated aversive techniques with voluntary counseling. They did not isolate licensed counselors, and they did not purport even in their own study to prove causation.”
He’s right.
Amy Green, the lead researcher in the first “study” mentioned, works with The Trevor Project, an LGBT activist group that strives to keep young people trapped in homosexual or transgender identities and behaviors.
The “study” was an “online survey conducted by The Trevor Project,” so not a random group of people or an analysis of individuals in a controlled setting.
While Stevenson said more than 34,000 people had undergone what the survey called “Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Change Efforts (SOGICE),” that was not true. Only 1,088 of those surveyed said they had “ever undergone reparative therapy or conversion therapy.”
But the survey never defined this type of therapy or explained the therapeutic techniques “asking them more broadly whether anyone had ever attempted to convince them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Convincing someone to change their “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” – both of which are subjective, political, non-scientific social constructs, is not “therapy.”
LGBT activist Jack Turban took “data” from the “2015 Transgender Survey,” conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality – hardly an unbiased group. It relied on “recalled lifetime exposure” to “gender identity conversion efforts (GICE).”
Stevenson said that 27,000 people had received “conversion therapy,” but, again, this was misleading, as only 3,869 “reported exposure to GICE in their lifetime.” Of those, 35% reported that this was from a religious advisor – not a licensed therapist.
The survey asked participants to recall, “Did any professional (such as a psychologist, counselor, or religious advisor) try to make you identify only with your sex assigned at birth (in other words, try to stop you being trans)?”
The study never clearly defined “GICE.” It never clarified key issues such as the length of time a transgender-identified person was involved in such efforts, who worked with them, what their credentials where, what kind of therapy was involved or how old they were.
Those surveyed were just asked if they remember someone, somewhere, sometime, somehow telling them they shouldn’t “be trans.”
Poor “studies” from LGBT activist groups don’t justify trampling on free speech.
In his final rebuttal, Campbell pointed out a key flaw in Colorado’s assault on the First Amendment: The law discriminates on the basis of a person’s views on homosexuality and transgenderism, delegitimizing people with a biblical view of sexuality.
This law’s viewpoint discrimination is even worse than we’ve heard so far this morning because the State of Colorado would allow a 12-year-old without their parents’ consent to enter into counseling that would go the opposite way on these issues of gender identity and sexual orientation, but if that same 12-year-old with their parents’ consent want to seek counseling in the opposite direction, the kind that my client would provide, they are not able to do that. That kind of viewpoint discrimination must survive strict scrutiny.
Chiles’ case against the state of Colorado has important ramifications, as 23 states, Washington, D.C. and dozens of local jurisdictions have similar counseling censorship laws in place.
Please pray with us that the Supreme Court sees Colorado’s law for what it is: censorship of free speech, an assault on religious freedom and the imposition by the state of a sexualized, secular worldview on people of faith.
A decision in the case is expected by the end of June 2026.
Related Articles and Resources
If you or someone you know is struggling with homosexuality or transgenderism, Focus on the Family offers a one-time complimentary consultation with our ministry’s professionally trained counseling staff. The consultation is free due to generous donor support.
To reach Focus on the Family’s counseling service by phone, call 1-800-A-Family (232-6459) weekdays 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time). Please be prepared to leave your contact information for a counselor or chaplain to return a call to you as soon as possible. Alternatively, you can fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.
We also offer local referrals for licensed counselors who align with the mission and values of Focus on the Family.
Read more about Chiles v. Salazar at ADF.
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Focus on the Family’s Position: Counseling for Unwanted Homosexuality
Is Therapy to Leave Homosexuality Damaging? New Review Says, ‘No Proof of Harm’
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New Study: Even Failed Efforts to Leave Homosexuality Are Not Harmful
New Study Shows Therapy to Leave Homosexuality Can Be Effective and Helpful
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Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case on Colorado’s Counseling Censorship Law
