XPost: law.court.federal, alt.transgendered, alt.society.mental-health
XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, sac.politics

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a challenge to a law
in Colorado that bans “conversion therapy” aimed at young people
questioning their sexual orientations or gender identities.

With more than 20 states with similar bans, the court's eventual ruling is likely to have nationwide implications.

The justices took up an appeal brought by Kaley Chiles, a Christian
therapist, who argued that the restriction violates her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.

Favored by some religious conservatives, the practice is aimed at
encouraging gay or lesbian minors to change their sexual orientations and transgender children to identify as the gender identities assigned to them
at birth.

Chiles often has clients who are Christians, some of whom have questions
about their sexual orientations and gender identities amid concerns that
they are unable to live their lives in accordance with their faith,
according to court papers. They seek counseling to suppress unwanted
sexual attractions or to resolve conflicts about their gender identities.

"The government has no business censoring private conversations between
clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose
the government’s biased views on her clients," Kristen Waggoner, president
of Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian advocacy group representing Chiles, said in a statement.

Chiles' lawyers cite in part the Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling that struck
down on free speech grounds a California law that required anti-abortion pregnancy clinics to notify clients about abortion access.

The lawyers argue that the bans have “devastating real world
consequences,” including in rare cases of “detransitioners” — the small proportion of transgender people who change course and wish to identity as
the genders they were assigned at birth.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-takes- challenge-colorado-conversion-therapy-ban-rcna193434

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)