Overview

• Chiles v. Salazar challenges Colorado’s 2019 law that bars licensed providers from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
• Several conservative justices appeared receptive to the plaintiff’s First Amendment claim of viewpoint discrimination, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson contrasting the case with the Court’s prior approval of Tennessee’s limits on gender-affirming care for minors.
• Colorado defends the statute as regulation of professional conduct to protect children and notes it exempts ministers and unlicensed practitioners.
• Mainstream medical organizations oppose conversion therapy, and recent research, including a Stanford Medicine survey, associates such efforts with elevated depression, PTSD and suicide risk.
• Analysts say a ruling for the plaintiff could jeopardize comparable bans in roughly two dozen states, but the Court has not issued a decision.