Could a US Supreme Court conversion therapy case for LGBTQ+ children affect CA? Experts weigh in

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case about whether state and local governments can enforce laws banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ children.

The case is based on a Colorado law prohibiting the practice of trying to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling, also known as conversion therapy.

In 2012 before same-sex unions were legalized federally, California was the first state to ban conversion therapy. If justices side with plaintiffs suing Colorado, the prohibition in California could be overturned.

About half of the nation's states do not allow practices that attempt to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity through such practices.

But advocates fear with the conservative majority on the high court, outcomes could be different this time.

Kimberly Richman, a legal studies professor at the University of San Francisco, said it is significant that the Supreme Court decided to take up this lawsuit after previously turning down a similar one in 2023.

"It tells me that there's been a shift in the court because the prior occasion on which they were asked to jump in on a case similar to this, they they decided not to," she said. "My sense is that the conservative justices feel like they have an additional voice where they could take this case in a way that would align with their own legal values."

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Richman said plaintiffs' arguments will be focused around the First Amendment rights of the counselor challenging Colorado's law -- Kaley Chiles. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal organization, filed the lawsuit on her behalf.

"They will be focusing more on this as a free speech issue for the therapist themselves, that they can't practice therapeutic medicine, their profession in the way that they desire to," Richman said.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, based in San Francisco, filed an amicus brief in support of state prohibitions on conversion therapy. Chris Stoll, a senior staff attorney with NCLR, said it's a matter of states' rights.

"States are the primary regulators of health care professionals. And so these laws are right in line with laws that protect people against all sorts of harmful medical practices, malpractice laws and so forth. And there's really no reason that the court needs to be stepping in to to change anything on that front," he said.

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It comes as President Donald Trump continues to take aim at transgender people, including executive action that banned them from serving in the military and a declaration that there are only two official genders in the United States.

"Every major mental health professional organization in the country and every major medical organization in the country opposes these practices and recognizes how harmful they are to kids," Stoll said. "They lead to a variety of of very serious problems that follow children throughout their lives, including a dramatically increased risk of suicidality from being put through these practices."

This case will be argued in October, when the high court's new term begins.