More than 180 congressional Democrats are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors, a practice that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling or behavioral techniques.
In an amicus brief filed Tuesday, 20 Democrat senators and 167 House members called the practice “harmful” and “violative of medical ethics.”
The Supreme Court in March agreed to hear a Christian therapist’s challenge on free speech grounds to the Democrat-backed Colorado law banning the practice.
The justices took up an appeal by licensed counselor Kaley Chiles of a lower court’s decision rejecting her claim that the 2019 statute unlawfully censors her communications with clients in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of speech. The state has said it is regulating professional conduct, not speech.
The Democrats concur.
“The Tenth Circuit got this right: Colorado’s law ‘regulates professional conduct that incidentally involves speech,'” they wrote in their brief, one of at least 70 amicus briefs filed since March, The Hill reported.
The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors, the James Dobson Family Institute, the Family Research Council, and Do No Harm are among the groups supporting Chiles, according to the report.
The Department of Health and Human Services released a review in May of transgender healthcare that advocated for a greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-change medical care and drugs for youths with gender dysphoria.
“Our duty is to protect our nation’s children — not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions,” National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said in a statement. “We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas.”
Colorado is one of 23 states plus Washington, D.C., that prohibit healthcare providers from the practice of conversion therapy on minors.
Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.
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