In the spring of 2015, on a sunny California day, I sat chatting with my nephew, Isaiah.
“My therapist said faith can straighten what nature bent,” he leaned in and told me.
As a trauma therapist, I found his treatment in the therapy room deeply troubling.
This week, the United States Supreme Court struck down a Colorado state law barring the practice of conversion therapy. In an 8–1 decision, the justices found that these bans violated the First Amendment. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented, reading, “it threatens to impair States’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.” The treatment does medical harm — First Amendment rights are not the issue here.
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