Supreme Court to hear Colorado Springs case challenging Colorado’s conversion therapy ban
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) - The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a Colorado Springs case challenging Colorado's ban on conversion therapy in October.
The main litigant in the case is Kaley Chiles a Colorado Springs woman who practices at Deeper Roots Counseling off Cascade Street.
Her legal team at Alliance Defending Freedom told KRDO13 Investigates that the Colorado law infringes on her 1st Amendment right to free speech.
"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. 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. We are eager to defend Kaley’s First Amendment rights and ensure that government officials may not impose their ideology on private conversations between counselors and clients.”
-Kristen Waggoner, ADF CEO and President
KRDO13 Investigates spoke to other people on both sides of the argument, some who have experience with conversion therapy.
Jeff Johnston is an analyst at Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs, and he went through a similar type of therapy when he was younger. He credits it with bettering his life.
"I was the one setting the goals for what I wanted for my therapy, that the therapist wasn't trying to impose something on me. And my goal was to not be in homosexual relationships, to deal with the thoughts and feelings when they came up, and move on towards marriage, which I did," Johnston said.
KRDO13 Investigates also spoke to Colorado-based advocates at Inside Out Youth Services. They said this type of therapy harms young people who are searching for their identity.
"I can say those who have gone through conversion therapy widely say it was one of the worst times of their lives. Often they're no longer in contact with the people who put them into conversion therapy. And unfortunately, often they suffered a lot of mental health issues as a result," Ollie Glessner said. "Our freedom of speech as Americans ends where harm is caused, and especially harm that is as well researched and well documented as the harm caused by conversion therapy."
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in this case in October.
