Foreword
In 2019, the Colorado legislature amended the state’s Mental Health Practice Act to ban licensed medical practitioners from performing “conversion therapy” on anyone under the age of 18. The law prohibits “any practice or treatment … that attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” citing a medical professional consensus that they are harmful to mental health or ineffective. Three years later, Kaley Chiles, a licensed therapist in Colorado Springs who offers youth counseling, filed a lawsuit against the state, alleging that the ban violated her First Amendment free speech rights. She alleged that the law…
