U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on Colorado’s law banning gay ‘conversion therapy’

Colorado is among more than two dozen states and the District of Columbia that restrict or prohibit conversion therapy for patients younger than 18.

The U.S. Supreme Court began hearing arguments on Tuesday in a challenge on free speech grounds to a Colorado law banning psychotherapists from conducting “conversion therapy” that aims to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

The dispute pits Colorado’s authority to forbid a health care practice it considers unsafe and ineffective against the rights of Christian licensed counsellor Kaley Chiles, who challenged the law under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protections against government abridgment of free speech.

Chiles appealed a lower court’s decision rejecting her claim that the 2019 statute unlawfully censors h