Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor, is challenging Colorado’s Minor Conversion Therapy Law (MCTL), which prohibits mental health professionals from providing “conversion therapy” to minor clients. “Conversion therapy” is statutorily defined as “any practice or treatment . . . that attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.” Ms. Chiles argues that the MCTL censors conversations between counselors and their clients based on the viewpoints expressed, in violation of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses. She sought an injunction to block the law, which the district court denied as unlikely to succeed on the merits. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit affirmed in full, stating that “the MCTL regulates professional conduct that ‘incidentally involves speech.’”
The case is now before the Supreme Court, to be argued this fall. Joined by the Jewish Coalition for Religious Liberty and the Islam and Religious Freedom Action Team (a part of the Religious Freedom Institute), and with input from Jewish and Muslim therapists, the Manhattan Institute has filed a brief supporting Ms. Chiles. We present two distinct arguments: (1) the Colorado law is not religiously neutral because it favors faiths whose theology requires support for gender transition, such as some liberal Christian and Jewish denominations, over those with more traditional views relating to sex and gender; and (2) laws prohibiting Jews and Muslims struggling with gender dysphoria from becoming more comfortable with their biological sex interfere with their ability to practice their religions, which traditional Jews and Muslims recognize are sex-based and don’t recognize the concept of gender identity.
Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
Tal Fortgang is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
With thanks to law school associates Rohit Goyal and Jonathan Kohan
Photo: Maskot / Maskot via Getty Images
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