WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear Chiles v. Salazar, a case in which a licensed professional counselor in Colorado wants to continue helping clients talk about various issues without being forced to promote the government’s gender ideology.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent counselor Kaley Chiles, who helps clients with various issues, including gender identity. Many of Chiles’ clients come to her because they share her Christian worldview and faith-based values. These clients believe their lives will be more fulfilling if they are aligned with the teachings of their faith. Yet Colorado law censors Chiles from speaking words her clients want to hear because the government does not like the view she expresses. After the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit upheld Colorado’s law, ADF attorneys filed a petition with the nation’s high court in November.
“The government has no business censoring private conversations between clients and counselors, nor should a counselor be used as a tool to impose the government’s biased views on her clients,” said ADF CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner. “There is a growing consensus around the world that adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria need love and an opportunity to talk through their struggles and feelings. Colorado’s law prohibits what’s best for these children and sends a clear message: the only option for children struggling with these issues is to give them dangerous and experimental drugs and surgery that will make them lifelong patients. We are eager to defend Kaley’s First Amendment rights and ensure that government officials may not impose their ideology on private conversations between counselors and clients.”
Colorado’s law violates Chiles’s freedom of speech by prohibiting licensed counselors from having any conversation with clients under age 18 that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
Significantly, the law only prohibits counseling conversations in one direction. For example, it allows counseling conversations that aim to steer young people toward a gender identity different than their sex but prohibits conversations that aim to help them return to comfort with their sex when they desire that. The law threatens severe penalties, including suspension and even revocation of the counselor’s license. This one-sided censorship comes amidst a growing national mental-health crisis and prevents many Colorado children from obtaining the counseling that they desire—and that science says is likely to help.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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