On one side stand Christian therapists offering what they regard as helpful counseling to youngsters whose parents—or they themselves—oppose their transgender or homosexual tendencies. Hovering at the other end are activists and psychologists who characterize such therapy as harmful.
In the middle: the US Supreme Court which must decide whether to overturn the 2019 Minor Conversion Therapy Law banning such counseling in Colorado. Not to mention, of course, people like me who, while generally supportive of gay rights, also recognize the obligation of parents to intercede in their children’s development in ways they deem beneficial.
To be fair, I am neither a therapist nor homosexual. I am, however, the brother of one who came out to me decades ago seeking support. “Please,” he begged, or words to that effect. “I’m gay but don’t want to be. Help me change.”
Not knowing what else to do, I referred my sibling to a therapist. Who, over several sessions, assisted him in accepting his homosexuality and the lifestyle it entailed. Which years later inspired him to marry my Filipino wife’s male cousin with whom he now lives in California.
The point is that my then-very-young brother didn’t know his own mind and thought he wanted to change. Would it have been better to prevent him from exploring that idea with a professional?
Colorado lawmakers apparently think so. In prohibiting so-called conversion therapy, they banned licensed mental health professionals from offering any counseling aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity. In doing so, they joined 27 other states—including California—harboring similar bans.
Ah, but then along came Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist who, according to The Spectator, “places the Bible at the center of her practice. To many of her patients,” the paper explained, “religious faith is more important than Freud.”
Which means that their treatment, besides traditional psychotherapy, includes Biblical precepts discouraging homosexuality. “Fearing the law would interfere with her treatment of teenage clients wrestling with their sexuality,” the paper reports, “Chiles filed suit in federal court against Colorado alleging the statute violated her First Amendment free speech rights.”
At first, she lost. After the initial trial and in several subsequent appeals, justices ruled that Colorado’s ban fell within the state’s right to regulate medical practices with an eye towards protecting patients’ safety. Then the Supreme Court got involved. And, according to several published reports following a hearing earlier this month, its justices seemed swayed by her arguments.
“I counsel my clients on…how to make their lives more fulfilling, satisfying and more in line with who God created them to be,” Chiles says in a video on the website of Alliance Defending Freedom, the law firm representing her. “What I am struggling with right now is that the state of Colorado has decided to impose its own values not only on me but, more importantly, on my minor clients.”
The dilemma, of course, comes from the testimony of others, including mental health professionals and some gay or transgender people, arguing that sexual and gender orientations are fixed psychological realities, and that attempts to change them can only cause harm. Countered by those who claim they have indeed changed their gender or sexual preferences and are happier as a result.
Which left me on the fence regarding something likely to have major national—and even global—repercussions. Because America is engaged in a war over cultural values. And this case lies at its veritable center.
But, as I said at the outset, I am only “almost” stuck in the middle. For Colorado law, it turns out, does, in fact, allow therapists to push minors towards early gender transition, something I have long opposed. So if it’s okay to urge one thing, why not the other?
“That looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination,” one justice argued during this month’s hearing.
Bingo! The only fair conclusion, I believe, is to silence only the state.
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David Haldane is an award-winning American journalist and author with homes in Southern California and Northern Mindanao. His latest book is Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise. This column appears weekly in The Manila Times.
