The Supreme Court has struck down bans on conversion therapy.

 

File photo of the Supreme Court. Politico/AP.

The Supreme Court has struck down a Colorado law banning conversion therapy. Politico. The case, Chiles v Salazar, in an 8-1 ruling found that Colorado's law that banned the practice was a violation of the 1st Amendment. Conversion therapy is a practice that attempts to reduce or remove same sex attraction and transgenderism through talk therapy. The practice has become controversial and 20 states have bans on the practice when used with minors. However, the court ruled that banning the practice was a violation of free speech. 

My Comment:

I have always thought that bans on conversion therapy were a pretty obvious violation of the 1st amendment, both on free speech grounds and religious freedom grounds. The government shouldn't get to have a say if a patient and his or her doctor want to talk out desisting from homosexuality or transgenderism. This wasn't a case where it was doctors prescribing medication or surgery, just talk therapy and the government is always going to get in trouble with the courts when they regulate talk.

The key problem here was that Colorado was pretty obviously and egregiously promoting viewpoint discrimination. Conversion therapy was banned but therapy that promoted or encouraged homosexuality or transgenderism for children was allowed. This is the government promoting one viewpoint and discriminating against another and the politics of it didn't matter to anyone but Ketanji Brown Jackson. 

Justice Kagan did point out that it was the discrimination that was the problem. Theoretically, a ban on the same kind of therapy encouraging homosexuality and transgenderism, would be just as legally suspect as Colorado's law. Outside of cases where people are being prescribed medication or surgery, you could face the same kind of ruling for a ban on that kind of therapy. You either have to allow both, or ban both, but picking and choosing is not going to be allowed anymore. And that means a lot of these conversion therapy bans are going to be removed. 

None of this is a judgement on if conversion therapy works or not. Given how politicized it is, I am guessing there isn't an honest study out there. My gut says that it probably does work when it comes to transgenderism but not so when it comes to homosexuality. I generally see transgenderism as a social contagion, not something that is natural, while homosexuality appears to be something that just happens naturally, though the cause is unknown.   

It also depends on what you mean when you say "works". I don't think homosexual attraction is something that you can talk yourself out off. But I do think that certain behaviors, like promiscuous or dangerous sex, are things you can talk yourself out off and that it could absolutely be helpful to talk those things out with a professional. And I think even from a secular perspective, there are reasons to encourage this, it's generally good to talk people out of their worst instincts. 

And for things like transgenderism? I absolutely think that this kind of therapy could help. I generally view the T portion of LGB to be a social contagion, not something that is real and that if people were allowed to talk it out with a therapist that wasn't trying to encourage it, most if not all transgender people wouldn't be transgender. 

Can I prove any of that? No, and that's the main problem. Studies are going to be so hopelessly politicized that we don't really have science as a tool and it's a real problem with modern science. My feeling is that every study showing conversion therapy doesn't work or does work would only be useful in telling who actually funded the study. 

Regardless, all of that is simple speculation that has little to do with the ruling. This was a very simple legal question, could the State of Colorado discriminate one political/religious point of view while promoting another? Obviously, they could not and that is why the ruling was so one sided.