The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons files an Amicus Brief in the Supreme Court in Support of the Right to Conversion Therapy

/EIN News/ -- TUCSON, Ariz., June 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) filed its amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on June 12 against a Colorado ban on conversion therapy for minors, in Chiles v. Salazar (No. 24-539). In this case, a therapist challenges the Colorado law, similar to bans in roughly half the states, that prevents her from counseling in support of a patient’s gender, while allowing transgender conversion advice.

Colorado and most blue states censor therapists from helping teenagers overcome gender dysphoria and same-sex attractions. But therapists are permitted to encourage transgender transitions and homosexuality, the brief states.

“This is a blatant content-based discrimination by government in violation of the First Amendment,” observes AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly. “Government cannot lawfully pick sides with viewpoint censorship.”

At issue before the Supreme Court is not whether conversion therapy, which is better called gender support therapy, is beneficial to most people. Instead, the issue is whether there is a free-speech right of licensed counselors to provide such talk therapy to patients, the brief explains.

“Physicians, therapists, and other caregivers are professionals not to be censored and controlled. They must retain First Amendment freedom of speech rights after licensure which they properly enjoyed prior to licensure,” the brief argues.

AAPS quotes Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissent from a Court decision not to review a challenge to a similar Washington State law. Justice Thomas wrote in Tingley v. Ferguson (2023) that the State allows counseling of “minors about gender dysphoria, but only if they convey the state-approved message of encouraging minors to explore their gender identities.”

“Expressing any other message is forbidden—even if the counselor’s clients ask for help to accept their biological sex. That is viewpoint-based and content-based discrimination in its purest form,” Justice Thomas added.

AAPS in its amicus brief urged the Court to invalidate Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. This would also negate similar laws in about half the country.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943.

Contact: Andrew Schlafly, (908) 719-8608, aschlafly@aol.com, or Jane M. Orient, M.D., (520) 323-3110, janeorientmd@gmail.com