Ex-Gay Torture May Soon Be Legal Again In Colorado (And Everywhere Else), Because SCOTUS
Except conversion therapy is consumer fraud, and fraud is not protected by the First Amendment.
On Tuesday, in a deeply disappointing 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Colorado therapist who claimed that the state’s ban on conversion therapy for minors violated her right to free speech. Sort of. The case will now go back to the lower courts, which will now review it under “strict scrutiny,” the highest level of judicial scrutiny — meaning that the state would have to prove that the law fills an essential government purpose, not just a permissible one. Lower courts previously judged the case with the lowest level of judicial scrutiny, only determining whether there was a rational basis for the law. Which there obviously is.
But this likely means doom for every ban on ex-gay torture in the nation, meaning that really terrible parents will once again be able to send their gay and transgender kids to really terrible therapists in hopes of forcing them to change their sexual preference or gender identity.
Kaley Chiles, the therapist involved in the case, specifically said that she relies only on talk therapy and does not use the more extreme aversion techniques like electroshock or drug-induced nausea, and that she only gets religious with clients who want it and who “have a goal to become comfortable and at peace” in their bodies. That, in short, sounds like some real bullshit, especially since it’s pretty unlikely that these kids would seek her out on their own, particularly those not yet old enough to drive. It’s likely not going to be their goal so much as it would be their parents’ goal. At best, they would seek it themselves out of fear that it will cause them to lose their parents or their community or burn in a lake of fire for all eternity.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, disturbingly, was the lone dissenting vote, and both Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor sided with the conservative judges. It was especially surprising given that the court actually rejected a very similar challenge to Washington’s ban just three years ago.
We know, for an absolute fact, that gay conversion therapy is harmful. Hell, even the people who ran Exodus International issued apologies back in 2012 for having ever promoted it in the first place, acknowledging both the “pain and hurt” that it caused and the fact that it did not work. Other “ex-gay” groups have done the same, especially once they all figured out that they can’t actually change their sexual orientation.
This is something that causes severe, lifelong trauma. Indeed, even if none of those harsher methods are employed, how is a therapist going to tell a child that who they are is something they must overcome, for Jesus, in a way that is not traumatizing?
More importantly, therapy is not supposed to be about the therapist and their very special personal feelings about who people should be allowed to love or be, it’s meant to be about the patient. If there were a scourge of pro-anorexia therapists, or therapists who were encouraging kids to commit suicide or other harmful activities, it would be reasonable to ban them from doing so.
Free speech is one of the most important rights we have. It’s right up there with our right to party. Consumer rights, however, are also pretty important, which is why free speech does not extend to fraud. Given that, again, we know that conversion therapy does not work and does cause harm, Kaley Chiles would be committing fraud if she were to claim that she is able to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Claiming that it is a religious thing is also not always an excuse.
Case in point! In 2023, Mark Grenon and his three sons were sent to prison on charges of “conspiring to defraud the United States and deliver misbranded drugs,” resulting from their sale and marketing of a toxic industrial bleach as a “Miracle Mineral Solution,” which they claimed cured all diseases. They specifically tried to get around this by starting their own church, the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing, and claiming that said toxic industrial bleach was a “sacrament.”
It did not work.
Psychics have also gone to prison for defrauding people, for taking thousands of dollars in order to end generational curses or help people find love — and they, frankly, have a better claim to “free speech” than does a therapist who wants to convert people from gay to straight. They, at least, have their “for entertainment purposes only” excuse. If psychics were going around regularly scamming children under the age of 18, I would imagine that someone would probably want to regulate that in some capacity.
It may seem like I’m reaching here, but in actuality, practically all of the successful lawsuits against conversion therapists have hinged on the issue of consumer fraud. In a landmark 2012 case, the Southern Poverty Law Center successfully sued Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH) on behalf of several former patients, on the grounds that the organization’s claim that it could change someone’s sexual orientation amounted to consumer fraud and unconscionable business practices. The organization was ordered to pay the defendants $72,400 (to pay for the therapy they needed to recover from the therapy they got) plus attorneys fees — and to close, permanently, and never open up another similar business. They, however, violated the latter order and ended up having to pay out $3.5 million.
Would I enjoy the hell out of Kaley Chiles getting her ass sued for falsely claiming she can pray someone’s gay away? I would. That would be an exceptionally good time. But that bit of schadenfreude is not worth putting kids through that.
As I said in a previous post about this, I'll defer to Evan since he's literally been through this. But FUCK SCOTUS for allowing this abomination to continue. And I sincerely hope this woman loses every single client and is forced to go out of business. It's the least she deserves.
I suffered from depression starting around age 12.
As an adult, I had pastors say that it was because I wasn't doing Christianity right. Unsurprisingly, placing the blame for my brain chemistry on me made me more depressed and I started considering suicide.
Admittedly, one does not have to be licensed to be a pastor, so I admit that that outcome was partially my own fault for putting too much faith in what those men had to say.
But if a licensed therapist told me I could will away or pray away my depression because I was promised the "joy" of the Lord, I would expect that that person should not be a licensed therapist for very long afterwards.