CO Gov Jared Polis kicks off Pride Month by signing new conversion therapy law

"Conversion Therapy can be harmful, traumatizes kids, and is a scam to waste people's hard-earned money," he said.

Out Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a new bill aimed at stopping conversion therapy.

“Conversion Therapy can be harmful, traumatizes kids, and is a scam to waste people’s hard-earned money,” Polis posted to social media after signing the bill on June 1 at The Center on Colfax, an LGBTQ+ nonprofit.

Related

Jared Polis may have ended his political career as Democrats are outraged over his latest action

“To kick off Pride month, I signed a new law that provides Coloradans who have been subject to this dehumanizing treatment with the tools to heal and move on to live strong, healthy and authentic lives. I also took action to ensure that no taxpayer funds are wasted on these scams.”

The bill, H.B. 26-1322, or the Civil Actions for Conversion Therapy Survivors Act, would allow conversion therapy survivors to sue therapists for damages if they tried to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Never Miss a Beat

Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today

The bill defines conversion therapy as treatment provided by a licensed mental health professional with the “predetermined outcome” of changing someone’s gender identity or sexual orientation. This effectively keeps the bill from applying to members of the clergy or lay ministries – most conversion therapy in the U.S. is performed by religious organizations, not licensed therapists – and creates an exemption for discussions of LGBTQ+ identities that come up in therapy, a matter of contention in a recent Supreme Court case.

The legislation passed the state senate in May in a party-line vote after already passing the Colorado House of Representatives.

“This law is for all of the LGBTQ Coloradans who were told something about them that was wrong because of who they were or who they loved,” state Rep. Alex Valdez (D), the bill’s sponsor in the state House, said in a statement. “With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling against Colorado’s conversion therapy ban, we are committed to offering survivors of this harmful practice the protections they deserve.”

Polis also signed an executive order to prevent conversion therapy. The order tells state agencies to “take appropriate steps to ensure no state funds are allocated or spent by their respective agencies for sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts.”

The Polis administration said that this order is a reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling against the state’s conversion therapy ban, which was passed in 2019, according to Colorado Newswire.

That ban on conversion therapy has never been enforced in the state, but a Christian therapist sued, saying that it violated her freedom of speech. She argued that it would ban her from even discussing LGBTQ+ identities with her clients, even though the state said repeatedly that it would not.

The Court ultimately ruled against the ban in Chiles v. Salazar, saying that it violated therapists’ First Amendment rights, and sent the case back to a lower court to reevaluate the law under a higher legal standard. Experts believe this means that Colorado’s 2019 conversion therapy ban – and bans like it passed in 26 other states and hundreds of municipalities – will likely eventually be overturned by courts.

Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.