On October 7, 2025, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Chiles v. Salazar, the case filed by Kaley Chiles. Chiles argues that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapies by licensed medical and mental health professionals is unconstitutional as it violates her right to free speech. There is a strong consensus among legal professionals on both sides of the political spectrum that the Supreme Court will side with the plaintiff in this case, which would ultimately strike down conversion therapy bans on minors nationwide, thus allowing licensed medical and mental health professionals to provide these harmful practices without any legal recourse.
James A. Campbell and John J. Bursch of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) represent the plaintiff. ADF is a far-right interest group with a lengthy history of demonizing the LGBTQ+ community, notably two friend-of-the-court briefs they submitted to the Supreme Court in 2003 in the case of Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down anti-sodomy laws nationwide. In the letters, they urged the Supreme Court to uphold sodomy laws and criminalize homosexual behavior in the name of morality and public health. In 2003, ADF also promoted a book on its website by its then-president Alan Sears, which claimed that gay men were more likely to be pedophiles. For this and many other reasons, ADF has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
During their opening arguments, Campbell and Burch repeatedly insisted that talk therapy is speech, not a medical intervention, and thus should not be subject to regulation by licensing boards, a sentiment that seemed to be echoed by all the conservative justices. Mr. Campbell also got the last word in before the arguments concluded by insisting that the lawsuit was not just about free speech, but also the protection of children; as he claimed 90% of children who are diagnosed with gender dysphoria will work through their symptoms by the time they become an adult and will return to identifying with the sex they were assigned at birth.
Campbell argued that banning conversion therapies prevents therapists like Chiles from helping children with gender dysphoria avoid the permanent harm that medical interventions can cause them later in life. The claim that 90% of children with gender dysphoria will “work through their issues” before adulthood has been refuted overwhelmingly by the mainstream scientific community. However, it is this type of misinformation that has and will continue to allow the Christian right to succeed in their quest to demonize and take rights away from the LGBTQ+ community.
There are multiple reasons that Kaley Chiles will likely prevail in this case. First, Shannon Stevenson, the solicitor general for Colorado, missed the mark during her opening arguments. While she did provide a convincing argument that psychotherapies are interventions and not merely speech, and that conversion therapies are completely legal behind clergy lines, it was not enough to overcome the scrutiny of the conservative justices, who have all made it clear in past rulings that being LGBTQ+ is antithetical to their worldviews.
Stevenson did not mention the harm that a licensed therapist can do by taking a prejudiced position, especially based on religious scriptures, regarding a vulnerable population like LGBTQ+ youth. Nor did she mention the reality that changing sexual orientation is not possible, and there is a robust body of evidence that demonstrates LGB and other sexual minority individuals who attempt to suppress their sexual urges due to religious influences places them at risk for numerous negative health and social outcomes; and that these aforementioned approaches are exactly what licensed therapists like Chiles and other proponents of conversion therapies have and will continue to utilize within the purview of their licenses, if Chiles prevails in this case.
Most importantly, the Alliance Defending Freedom is a financial juggernaut within the world of interest groups promoting Christian nationalist ideologies. ADF has been very successful in many freedom of speech lawsuits at the Supreme Court over the past ten years, especially in the context of restricting LGBTQ+ and reproductive health rights.
It is important to note that Justice Amy Coney Barrett has an extensive history of paid speaking engagements with ADF, which ended in 2017 when she was appointed to the federal bench. When questioned during her confirmation hearing in 2020, she claimed not to be aware of ADF’s stances regarding the LGBTQ+ community during the time of her speaking engagements with ADF, which many commentators have stated is highly unlikely, given how explicit ADF has been about their disdain for the LGBTQ+ community, both in their public statements and on their website.
The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision in this case in June of 2026. Governor Josh Shapiro was pivotal in Pennsylvania’s ban on licensed mental health professionals practicing conversion therapies on minors, which was implemented in 2024, and Allegheny County has a wealth of resources for LGBTQ+ youth and families.
Hopefully, collective action will be taken to help ensure the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ youth in our region if such a devastating blow to the LGBTQ+ community occurs. Again, given the preponderance of the evidence at hand, it is very likely to occur.
