The Supreme Court has agreed to review state and local laws that ban conversion therapy for LGBTQ children in a case from Colorado, thrusting them into the contentious debate around LGBTQ rights.
State of play: The case comes amid President Donald Trump’s executive orders to ban trangender people from the military and to end federal funding for trangender operations for minors.
The big picture: The central issue revolves around whether the bans infringe on the speech rights of counselors, with defenders of the laws arguing that they regulate the conduct of state-licensed professionals.
- The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver upheld Colorado’s state law, while the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has struck down local bans in Florida. The Supreme Court’s decision will offer clarity on these differing interpretations across states.
- The Court had previously declined to take up a similar challenge, despite conflicting decisions from federal appeals courts on state bans, suggesting a potential split among the justices on the issue.
Driving the news: The case, set to be argued in the new term beginning in October, involves a counselor from Colorado Springs and was filed by the conservative legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom.
- While the counselors’ lawyers argue that they are not seeking to “cure” clients of same-sex attractions or change their sexual orientation, Colorado stresses that the laws were enacted to regulate professional conduct based on evidence suggesting that efforts to alter a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity are unsafe and ineffective.
