The Supreme Court has struck down a Colorado law that protected youth from conversion therapy – harmful efforts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Intersex youth are disproportionately vulnerable to conversion therapy practices. Of LGBTQ+ youth who are intersex, research by the Trevor Project found that 13% had been subjected to formal conversion therapy, while 77% had experienced informal change efforts – meaning that someone in their life had tried to convince them to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Healthcare providers were the culprits more than five times as often for intersex youth compared to non-intersex LGBTQ+ youth. These attempts to promote a heterosexual and cisgender identity in intersex youth sometimes go hand-in-hand with non-consensual childhood surgery to enforce stereotypes associated with the assigned sex category – a practice known as Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM).
Attempting to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity is harmful and abusive. Every major medical organization still condemns conversion therapy as harmful and unethical. It is linked to increased rates of suicide attempts, anxiety and depression.
This devastating decision in the Chiles v. Salazar case will not only allow these harmful practices to resume in Colorado; it also leaves other states’ protective laws vulnerable to legal challenges by conversion therapy proponents, threatening the safety of LGBTQI+ youth across the country. Coming from the same Justices who just last year upheld bans on gender-affirming care under the guise of “protecting children,” today’s decision reveals hypocrisy of the highest order.
Survivors still have a range of legal options to fight back, including consumer fraud claims, medical malpractice, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Today’s Supreme Court decision will irreparably harm countless LGBTQI+ young people who depend on laws like Colorado’s for protection. We will not accept this hypocritical and harmful decision, and will continue to fight for every LGBTQIA+ person to receive the acceptance, dignity, and respect they deserve.
