Conversion Therapy Gets Speech Protections — But Trans Kids’ Existence Gets No Protection At All

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 on Tuesday that Colorado's ban on conversion therapy for minors likely violates a Christian counselor's First Amendment rights, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing that speech does not become regulable "conduct" simply because a government calls it treatment. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, warning the decision threatens all state medical licensing standards by shielding speech-based professional conduct from regulation. The ruling threatens conversion therapy bans in nearly half of all U.S. states and could extend constitutional protection to other harmful speech by licensed practitioners—from doctors encouraging suicide to therapists steering patients from life-saving treatment. The case now returns to the Tenth Circuit, where the Colorado law will almost certainly be struck down under heightened judicial scrutiny. Experts including trans rights advocate Erin Reed note that without legal protection through speech-based regulation, opponents of conversion therapy may need to pursue "creative methods" like malpractice and tort law.