Gavin Newsom slams Supreme Court ruling on ‘junk science’ conversion therapy

California Gov. Gavin Newsom blasted a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Tuesday striking down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors, calling the practice “junk science” and warning the decision could endanger vulnerable young people.

“Conversion therapy is discredited junk science that inflicts harm on LGBTQ youth,” Newsom wrote on X. “The Supreme Court’s decision is disappointing and puts vulnerable kids at risk.”

Supreme Court justices ruled 8-1 that Colorado’s law prohibiting licensed therapists from performing talk-based conversion therapy on minors likely violates the First Amendment, siding with a Christian counselor who argued the restriction amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination.

More than 20 states, including California, prohibit licensed therapists from performing conversion therapy on minors. California became the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors in 2012. 

The law makes it illegal for licensed mental health professionals to try to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. California’s law does not apply to adults and does not regulate religious counseling.

Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said the law improperly targets speech based on ideology, framing counseling conversations as protected expression rather than regulated medical conduct. 

“We do not doubt that the question ‘how best to help minors’ struggling with issues of gender identity or sexual orientation is presently a subject of ‘fierce public debate,’” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority in a 23-page opinion.

“But Colorado’s law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech based on viewpoint. Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety. Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same,” Gorsuch added.

The ruling reverses a lower court decision and could open the door to challenges against similar laws nationwide.

Conversion therapy — a practice aimed at changing a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity — has been widely criticized by major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, which have linked it to depression, anxiety and increased suicide risk among LGBTQ youth.

Gorsuch countered during oral arguments that scientific understandings change over time, noting that homosexuality in the 1970s was generally seen as a mental health disorder.

In a lone dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued that states should retain authority to regulate harmful medical practices, warning the decision could weaken protections for patients.

Newsom, a longtime advocate for LGBTQ rights, has often pointed to his personal ties to the community, including his transgender godson, Nats Getty, a designer and activist who publicly came out as a trans man in 2021. 

The governor has referenced Getty in defending policies aimed at protecting transgender Californians.

“I have a trans godson — there’s no governor that’s signed more pro-trans legislation than and no one has been a stronger advocate for the LGBT community,” Newsom said on the Ezra Klein podcast.

Legal experts say Tuesday’s ruling is likely to trigger new challenges to California’s law and others like it, setting up a broader legal fight over the balance between free speech, religious liberty and protections for LGBTQ youth.

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