'Talk therapy': Supreme Court hears case of Colorado counselor sanctioned over LGBT ideology * WorldNetDaily * by Bob Unruh

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Kaley Chiles, (Photo courtesy ADF)

Colorado’s leftist government, run by homosexual Gov. Jared Polis and other Democrats who make up the majority of the legislature, has decided that it’s free speech when a licensed counselor tries to convince a client of the benefits of the LGBT lifestyle. That “affirming” advice.

But it’s “behavior” when a Christian licensed counselor explains to a client the benefits of attitude adjustments that provide the patient a level of comfort inside his or her own sexual identity. That, Colorado claims, can be censored.

That fight was before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, in a case brought by Christian counselor Kaley Chiles, who explains that the state’s one-sided and censorial agenda of leftism actually violates her constitutionally protected right to free speech.

It’s been a common tactic for LGBT activists and other leftists across the country to falsely label such counseling “conversion therapy” and then make it illegal to counter their political ideology.

The Supreme Court, at least a “majority” of the justices, seemed “to lean in favor of a Christian counselor challenging bans on LGBTQ+ ‘conversion therapy’ for kids as a violation of her First Amendment rights,” according to a published report.

Colorado already has lost multiple cases at the high court in its campaigns to censor Christians and force them to parrot the state’s adopted pro-LGBT ideology. In one case, the justices scolded state officials for their “hostility” to Christians.

Even AP, which leans far left in its politics, admitted the justices, whose decision won’t come for some weeks or even months, appeared to choose Chiles’ side.

The high court already has ruled that states can ban transition-related health care for “transgender” youth.

Colorado’s lawyers insisted that any “treatment” seeking to change “a minor’s sexual orientation” is “unsafe and ineffective.”

However, studies show that the incident of suicidal ideology is higher for those in the LGBT lifestyle than the general population.

A report at the Daily Signal explained, “Colorado says its law regulates a ‘treatment’ that is harmful and that violates the state’s standard of care. But Kaley Chiles, a Colorado-based counselor, says the law violates her right to free speech by favoring ‘the expression of some views over others.”

The report noted the wild tangent into which Sonia Sotomayor tried to push the court. She demanded to know whether Chiles encourages her clients to vomit or exposes them to electric shock therapy.

Chiles’ lawyers explained she engages in speech with her clients, “voluntary talk therapy.”

Leftist judges in Colorado, where the all-Democrat state Supreme Court even tried to throw Donald Trump off the 2024 presidential ballot, claimed the state was right in saying that speech is behavior.

Colorado Solicitor General Shannon Stevenson claimed studies confirm higher rates of suicidality among teens who underwent conversion therapy – but Chiles’ lawyer explained those results depend on biased sampling, self-reporting, which is unreliable, and the inappropriate conflation of “aversion therapy,” a separate concept entirely, with the misnamed “conversion therapy.”

Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told The Daily Signal, “Under Colorado law, young people may seek a licensed counselor’s help to affirm or support their sexual orientation or gender identity, but not to change it or even to better align it with their sex or religious faith. As a direct restriction on speech, this blatant, intentional viewpoint discrimination violates the First Amendment. The kind of ‘talk therapy’ that plaintiff [Kaley] Chiles uses helps many clients, and Colorado has never offered evidence of any harm.”

WND previously reported, “Officials in the leftist state who multiple times have demanded the authority to censor Christians in the state have claimed that the counselors’ speech is “behavior,” which they say they can regulate. But their agenda is clear in the details of their fight: They insist that no counselor can encourage a patient to consider NOT being LGBT. But promotions of the LGBT lifestyle choices are fully encouraged.”

Detractors have called such counseling “conversion therapy” but the misnomer isn’t accurate since the counseling actually involves helping patients come to grips with their own reality.

The 3rd and 11th circuit courts already have found such bans suppress protected speech.

Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said, “Laws that restrict counselors and clients to only one viewpoint violate the First Amendment. Talk therapy is speech, and the government has no authority to restrict that speech to just one viewpoint. Counseling bans must be struck down nationwide so that people can get the counseling they need. Counselors and clients should have the freedom to choose the counsel of their choice and be free of government censorship.”

‘Law forbids her’: U.S. Supreme Court to hear demand from leftists to censor Christian counselors

Bob Unruh

Bob Unruh joined WND in 2006 after nearly three decades with the Associated Press, as well as several Upper Midwest newspapers, where he covered everything from legislative battles and sports to tornadoes and homicidal survivalists. He is currently a news editor for the WND News Center, and also a photographer whose scenic work has been used commercially. Read more of Bob Unruh's articles here.