COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — When Kaley Chiles welcomes therapy clients to her tranquil bungalow of an office, she offers loose-leaf tea and asks what brings them to counseling, what’s causing distress and how she can help them meet their goals.

Under a 2019 Colorado law, if clients younger than 18 tell her that their same-sex attractions are causing them stress, as a licensed therapist, she is forbidden from counseling them to change their sexual orientation. If they want to talk about their gender identity, she cannot advise them to change it.

Colorado lawmakers and major medical groups say that kind of counseling is ineffective and potentially harmful for minors, and it is therefore appropriate for state governments to outlaw it for licensed mental health professionals.

Chiles, an evang

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