The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to take up a major religious liberty case involving a Colorado law that prohibits so-called conversion therapy on minors, effectively restricting religious families from accessing biblical counseling for unwanted sexual orientations and gender identities. The 2019 Colorado law bans any practice or treatment on minors that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” More than 20 states and 100 local governments have similar laws.
Kaley Chiles, a professional counselor licensed by Colorado, filed suit in federal court claiming the law violates her free speech and religious liberty rights protected under the First Amendment. She is a Christian. Many of her clients, too, are Christians who “seek her help because of their shared faith-based convictions and biblical worldview,” the lawsuit says.
Lower courts upheld the law. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) is representing Chiles.
The Supreme Court has never considered the issue.
“The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients,” said Kristen Waggoner, ADF’s president and general counsel.
“There is a growing consensus around the world that adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria need love and an opportunity to talk through their struggles and feelings. Colorado’s law prohibits what’s best for these children and sends a clear message: the only option for children struggling with these issues is to give them dangerous and experimental drugs and surgery that will make them lifelong patients.”
Chiles contends the law infringes on the rights of families, too. That’s because she works “with voluntary clients who determine the goals that they have for themselves,” the lawsuit says.
“Chiles’s clients voluntarily and specifically seek her counsel because they want the help her viewpoint provides,” the suit says. “Yet Colorado’s law forbids her from speaking, treating her professional license as a license for government censorship.”
Many of her clients, the suit says, seek Christian-based counseling “to reduce or eliminate unwanted sexual attractions, change sexual behaviors, or grow in the experience of harmony with [their] physical body.”
The case likely will be heard this fall.
It is only the latest Supreme Court case at the intersection of LGBT issues and religious liberty. This term, the justices are also set to hear challenges to state bans on gender-related medical treatments for minors, as well as disputes over the inclusion of LGBTQ-themed books in public schools.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Anna Moneymaker/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
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Originally published March 10, 2025.
