Supreme Court accepts Colorado case on conversion therapy
The Supreme Court is about to get into the transgender fight.
The Court has agreed to take a case that originated in Colorado to fight a law that bans “conversion therapy” for people who are challenging their birth gender or sexual orientation.
Both sides of the aisle will be watching this case very closely.
Game On
The plaintiff in the case is a Christian therapist who says the new law is a violation of her First Amendment rights.
For those not familiar, conversion therapy is a form of therapy to encourage people questioning their gender or sexual orientation to accept their born gender and “natural” sexual orientation.
This therapy has been banned in nearly half the states in the country.
Kaley Chiles, the Christian therapist, stated, "These clients believe their lives will be more fulfilling if aligned with the teachings of their faith, and they want to achieve freedom from what they see as harmful self-perceptions and sexual behaviors.”
This type of therapy has been controversial since its inception.
It dates back to the 1800s, when homosexuality was considered to be pathological, with the belief being that if properly treated, these people could be cured of their “condition.”
While there were psychologists who addressed this in the 1800s, one of the more popular cases was highlighted by Sigmund Freud in 1920, with a paper called "The Psychogenesis of a Case of Homosexuality in a Woman."
The paper followed the case of a lesbian who was put into conversion therapy by her parents, who wanted her condition to change.
Freud concluded that her condition was not an illness or a neurotic conflict, which started the shift in how people started to look at homosexuality, even though it would still be decades before homosexuals were openly accepted in society.
In 1935, Freud received a request to treat a gay boy, and he replied, in part, “I gather from your letter that your son is a homosexual. [...] it is nothing to be ashamed of, no vice, no degradation; it cannot be classified as an illness; we consider it to be a variation of the sexual function, produced by a certain arrest of sexual development.”]
I have to admit, I am very curious how the Court will fall on this particular subject.
I would guarantee that Justices Alito and Thomas will hold the conservative line, and all three liberal justices will uphold the ban.
So, the question is where will Roberts and the Trump justices fall, and I believe Roberts will cross over on this one, bringing at least one Trump justice, if not more, with him.