The Minnesota Star Tribune: Supreme Court strikes down Colorado’s conversion therapy ban. Minnesota’s could follow.

Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, the first trans woman elected to the Minnesota Legislature said the decision marks a “terrible day” for LGBTQ youth.

A U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down Colorado’s ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy for minors opens the door for the practice to resume in Minnesota three years after lawmakers outlawed it.

In an 8-to-1 decision on March 31, the court found that prohibiting conversion therapy — talk therapy designed to change someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation — for minors violated the First Amendment rights of clinicians. The decision doesn’t immediately affect Minnesota’s ban — which passed with Republican support in 2023 — but the ruling could invite challenges to the state’s law.

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Minnesota’s ban prohibits licensed mental health professionals from engaging in conversion therapy, but allows for religious counseling. It’s one of more than a dozen states that outlaw conversion therapy.

Faith groups and religious counselors in Minnesota have opposed the ban, including Nate Oyloe, a pastor and head of Minneapolis-based Agape First Ministries. According to a court brief he and other individuals filed in opposition to Colorado’s ban, Oyloe went through conversion therapy and “[overcame] his same-sex desires by addressing underlying mental-health challenges stemming from physical and emotional abuse as a child and an intense family divorce.”

Oyloe said in an interview that Agape First Ministries — which isn’t affected by Minnesota’s ban — works with people “who have unwanted same-sex attractions or gender dysphoria and people who are wanting to bring their sexuality into agreement with their faith.”

“One of the most harmful things we can do is take away people’s power to choose, and we would never advocate for somebody to be forced or coerced into any kind of therapy or program,” he said.

Renee Carlson of True North Legal, which filed Oyloe’s brief, called the decision “a win for free speech and common sense” and an “opportunity for Minnesota to align state statute with the law.”

“In effect, these laws target licensed counselors and mental health professionals, but they are not the only victims,” Carlson said in a statement. “Counseling censorship laws leave children and adolescents struggling with gender confusion to go it alone.”

But Finke and other critics of conversion therapy argue it can have disastrous outcomes for young people. The American Psychological Association says the practice is associated with depression, anxiety, suicidality and substance use among other psychological harms.

Jess Braverman, legal director of the nonprofit Gender Justice, said in a statement that Supreme Court decision “puts children back in harm’s way.”

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Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, said the court decision doesn’t prevent states from banning “banning aversive or coercive practices” and that the group wouldn’t oppose such legislation. He said the conference doesn’t support “any specific practice called ‘conversion therapy.’”

But Adkins said the Colorado and Minnesota bans target “disfavored viewpoints and professional speech.”

“Counselors and psychological professionals want to help young people who are dealing with so many challenges these days, including questions about their sexual identity,” Adkins said in an email. “Our hope is that the ruling ensures young people have access to the mental health resources that they need.”

Read the full article from The Minnesota Star Tribune.