This resource was created as a collaboration between GLAAD, The Trevor Project, and the Movement Advancement Project.
On October 7, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a landmark case, Chiles v. Salazar, concerning Colorado’s state law protecting LGBTQ youth from so-called “conversion therapy” – the first time the Court has heard a case on the topic.
Conversion “therapy” practices are prohibited in 23 states and in dozens of municipalities, protecting nearly half of all LGBTQ youth in the U.S. Like most other states with protections in place, Colorado enacted its law based on “overwhelming evidence that efforts to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity are unsafe and ineffective.”
Background:
- Chiles v. Salazar concerns a Colorado practitioner who wants to override the state’s law protecting youth from the discredited practice of attempting to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
- Colorado’s law prohibits therapists from subjecting young people to treatments falsely promising they can change sexual orientation or gender identity if they just try hard enough.
- The petitioner in the case, Kaley Chiles, is a mental health counselor in Colorado who does not treat LGBTQ youth, but believes the law violates her freedom of speech. She is represented by longtime anti-LGBTQ legal group Alliance Defending Freedom.
Facts:
- Colorado’s law does not prevent therapists from providing a space for young people to discuss their sexual orientation or gender identity. It prohibits conversion practitioners from pressuring youth toward changing their LGBTQ identity, which research shows has proven harms for LGBTQ youth.
- The constitutional question in the case concerns states’ regulation of mental health treatment and professional conduct in therapeutic settings.
- Anti-LGBTQ activists have falsely claimed for years that a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is a choice and changeable — but only for LGBTQ people. They often falsely claim that LGBTQ identities are not real, but rather an expression of mental illness or an emotional disorder that can be “cured” through psychological or religious intervention. Conversion practices often dismantle and fracture families by suggesting that one or more parents are to blame as a result of a young person struggling with or questioning their sexual orientation or gender identity, causing mistrust and resentment..
Research on Harms:
- For decades, conversion “therapy” practices have been proven to cause harm through increased rates of suicide attempts, anxiety, and depression among those subjected to it.
- Research also shows it results in shame, confusion, and spiritual disconnection to faith communities and among families.
- Every major medical and mental health association in the country condemns the practice and supports efforts to prevent practitioners from violating their oath to “do no harm”, including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Medical Association.
- The United Nations has compared conversion practices to “torture.”
Best Practice Reporting:
- Elevate the voices of professional experts and personal stories of survivors, families, and those harmed by the practice.
- Read and include context from friend -of-the-court briefs submitted by stakeholders including:
- Survivors who endured harms inflicted upon them and their family relationships
- Major medical associations and health care experts
- Fatih-based mental health professionals and ex-practitioners of conversion therapy who testify to the harms it causes families and faith communities
- Former conversion therapy leaders and advocates (“ex-gay” advocates who now denounce the practice
- Catholic, religiously conservative, and celibate LGBTQ people of faith
- Attorneys general representing 20 states and the District of Columbia
For additional resources, please refer to:
- GLAAD’s fact sheet on the upcoming term at the Supreme Court: https://glaad.org/whats-at-stake-at-the-supreme-court-in-2025-2026-fast-facts/
- GLAAD’s Media Reference Guide – “In Focus” on Conversion Therapy: https://glaad.org/reference/conversion-therapy/
- The Trevor Project’s backgrounder on Chiles v. Salazar: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/blog/chiles-v-salazar/
- The Trevor Project’s “It’s Still Happening” report identifies more than 1,300 active conversion therapy practitioners in the U.S.
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/conversion-therapy-report/ - Movement Advancement Project’s LGBTQ Policy Spotlight: Laws Protecting LGBTQ Youth From Conversion “Therapy”: https://www.mapresearch.org/2025-conversion-therapy-report
