Today, on Transgender Day of Visibility, the Supreme Court chose to announce a decision that removes states’ ability to protect minors from conversion therapy. The timing of this ruling is not incidental. Delivering this ruling on a day meant to affirm the humanity, dignity, and resilience of transgender people, is an intentional act that compounds harm of their decision.
Transgender Day of Visibility exists because trans people have been historically been forced into the margins, silenced, erased, and endangered. Announcing a ruling that weakens protections for transgender and queer youth on this day sends a clear message: that the pain of our communities is acceptable collateral damage in the exercise of power.
We reject that message.
Conversion Therapy Is Not “Speech.” It Is Harm.
Conversion therapy is not a harmless exploration of identity. It is a practice that has been uniformly condemned by major medical and mental health organizations because it causes measurable, lasting harm, especially to minors. Survivors of conversion therapy report higher rates of depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress, substance use, and suicidality. These outcomes are not abstract concerns; they are documented, lived realities.
When a licensed professional uses their authority to frame a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity as a disorder to be corrected, that is not neutral speech. It is an intervention that weaponizes shame, coercion, and fear against a developing child.
No appeal to the First Amendment can erase the overwhelming medical consensus: conversion therapy does not work, and it causes damage.
“Speech uttered for purposes of providing medical treatment may be restricted incidentally when the State reasonably regulates the speaker’s provision of medical treatments to patients. To do anything else opens a dangerous can of worms. It threatens to impair States’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect. It extends the Constitution into uncharted territory in an utterly irrational fashion. And it ultimately risks grave harm to Americans’ health and wellbeing,”
– Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
Licensing Is About Protecting the Public
States license therapists, counselors, and other professionals precisely because words have power in clinical settings. The same Constitution that protects free expression has long permitted states to set standards of care for licensed professionals in order to protect patients from harm. This ruling dangerously reframes professional regulation as ideological censorship, undermining the ability of states to respond to evidence-based medical standards. It erodes necessary safeguards not only in mental health care, but across regulated professions where public trust and safety depend on ethical limits.
Justice Jackson’s dissent rightly recognizes what the majority ignores: licensed therapy does not happen “in the ether.” It happens in rooms where vulnerable young people seek care from adults entrusted with their well-being.
“Chiles is not speaking in the ether; she is providing therapy to minors as a licensed healthcare professional. The Tenth Circuit was correct to observe that “[t]here is a long-established history of states regulating the healthcare professions. And, until today, the First Amendment has not blocked their way.”
– Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson
The Dignity of Trans People Is Not Up for Debate
Transgender people are inherently worthy of dignity, safety, and respect. Our lives and bodies belong to us, and our existence is not a question to be argued, but a reality to be honored. We are part of families, faith communities, schools, and workplaces. We contribute, we care for others, and we deserve care in return that affirms who we are.
Every young person deserves the freedom to explore and understand themselves without fear, shame, or coercion. Attempts to reframe conversion therapy as compassion, neutrality, or open inquiry do not withstand scrutiny. There is nothing neutral about positioning a young person’s identity as a problem to be solved. There is nothing compassionate about interventions that begin from the premise that someone must change who they are in order to be accepted.
Respecting dignity means rejecting practices that pathologize identity and instead committing to care that uplifts, listens, and protects.
We Will Continue to Show Up
This ruling does not change what we know to be true:
- Transgender and queer youth deserve protection, not conversion.
- Professional ethics exist to prevent harm.
- Visibility without safety is not enough.
On this Transgender Day of Visibility, we reaffirm our commitment to defending the dignity, safety, and lives of trans people, especially trans youth. We will continue to advocate for policies grounded in evidence, compassion, and human rights.
