Colorado Gov. Jared Polis countered a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling by passing a law that allows people to sue for damages in regard to receiving talk therapy intended to help them overcome gender dysphoria and live in accordance with their biological sex. Polis also signed an executive order that prohibits state funds from going to such therapy.
Polis signed the bill and executive order on June 1, in recognition of “Pride” month. The signing comes about two months after the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Kaley Chiles, a licensed Christian counselor in Colorado who provided Biblical support to minors who sought her help to overcome same-sex attraction and gender dysphoria.
On behalf of Chiles, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sued the state in 2022, challenging a Colorado law that banned such counseling. The Supreme Court ruled that the law constituted as “viewpoint” discrimination for censoring counselors and therapists’ free speech based on their views, as “the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
“It reflects instead a judgment that every American possesses an inalienable right to think and speak freely, and a faith in the free marketplace of ideas as the best means for discovering truth,” the high court said.
The new law was approved by the Colorado Senate in a 41-23 vote and the House in a 42-22 vote on May 7.
Patients whose mental health professional conducted talk therapy to alter or influence their gender identify or sexual preferences can now sue their health professional for facilitating such discussions.
The law, founded on the premise that such therapy is unsafe and can lead to a person’s death, allows a plaintiff to file a lawsuit for the deceased for up to five years, saying “the cause of action described in this section survives the death of the person who underwent sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts and may be brought or maintained by the person’s personal representative or estate.”
Hal Frampton, senior counsel at ADF, called the bill “yet another example of Colorado sidestepping the Constitution and trampling the First Amendment rights of counselors.”
“In the Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision in Chiles v. Salazar, they made it clear that government cannot censor voluntary conversations directed at the client’s goals,” Frampton told Decision. “Kids deserve real help affirming that their bodies are not a mistake and that they are wonderfully made.”
Polis’ executive order states that “Each Agency shall take appropriate steps to ensure no State funds are allocated or spent by their respective Agencies for sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts.”
The governor’s spokesperson Eric Maruyama admitted in an email that the executive order comes in retaliation to the Chiles v. Salazar ruling.
“Governor Polis’s action today ensures that no state funding ever goes to the scam of conversion therapy,” Maruyama wrote. “Following the SCOTUS ruling to overturn Colorado’s law banning conversion therapy, Governor Polis is taking action to ensure that Coloradans can be entirely confident that no state funding will go to this harmful and inhumane treatment.”
Frampton told Decision that as long as Colorado continues to attempt to “end-run the Supreme Court’s decision” the state “will face challenges and pushback in Court and from the public.”
