The road to dead kids is paved with intention.

Long story short: in the Chiles v. Salazar case, the arguments in favor of legalizing “voluntary” talk therapy (aka, parents being able to force their children to undergo conversion therapy), which has been proven decisively to not work and which makes children commit suicide TWICE AS OFTEN, do not hold water. Let’s explore why. But first, the what.

The Conservative Supreme Court of the United States has positioned itself to rule against Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy. It’s all but certain that state-level bans on the practice will get the axe. This would run entirely contrary to the SCOTUS’s former ruling on Skrmetti which allowed states to make their own decisions with regard to conversion therapy. Of course, it is our states’ duty to defy this stupid, murderous decision, but not all will hold firmly onto their convictions.

The counselor’s case against Colorado is based on the argument that “talk therapy” counts as protected speech under the 1st Amendment, and shouldn’t be regulated the same way as other medical practices are. This is pants-on-head; mental healthcare is healthcare. It’s arguably more important that it is regulated. You might recover from substandard care at a hospital, but psychological wounds last far longer and dig far deeper, and great harm can be inflicted on someone who’s otherwise perfectly healthy.

In every case, trying to force gender and sexual minorities to reject what is innately written into them is to cause grave harm. Even if you believe (falsely, and against evidence and reality) that gender and sexual minorities are aberrations of nature who would be better off not being the way they are, conversion therapy does not work.

By way of analogy, imagine you are left-handed. It comes naturally to you. Your teacher, believing right-handedness is proper, smacks you with a ruler every time she catches you writing left-handed. Would you be glad? Would you be grateful? No, if you’re like most people, you would be very resentful, you would grudgingly write with your right hand when the teacher was around and use your left in secret, and you’d have bruises on your hands because it doesn’t feel right to force yourself to be something you’re not. As soon as you got away from that teacher, you’d hate her guts and whoever forced you to be in a room with her. And would you actually be right-handed after the whole experience? NO.

(Boomers, I’m aware this was actual reality not even a hundred years ago. May we not ever be that stupid again.)

In addition to not being able to fundamentally change people, the actual way of causing change in people is to accept and affirm them first before then gently challenging their beliefs. If you, again, despite all evidence contrary, believe that being queer or trans is wrong in some way, when was the last time someone convinced you of something by calling you names and telling you you’re bad and evil? What? It’s never worked?? I’m electrically SHOCKED.

Although conversion therapy has historically relied on literal torture to try to coerce kids into being something they’re not, Kaley Chiles claims that her practice will be speech-only. This doesn’t help at all. The reason LGBTQ+ people are more depressed and suicidal is because of the lack of social acceptance. We are social creatures. Large portions of our brains and our mental energy goes into evaluating social behaviors, evaluating our social status, and seeking acceptance. Being socially outcast is THE primary way of causing harm–trans teens that receive acceptance from their parents become no more suicidal than normal teens. Conversion therapy, even just “talk therapy,” is the gun delivering that bullet of social nonacceptance–if you are against kids committing suicide, don’t let adults shoot kids with it.

Lastly, I wanted to touch on why, even though Chiles claims her “faith-informed counseling” will be “speech only” and “voluntary,” the ruling will still kill kids. Parents can force children to do things (duh). Even if it’s entirely voluntary from her end, children are at the mercy of their parents to provide them shelter, food, and love. By threatening to withhold one or all of these things, kids can be forced to do anything against their will and well-being, including undergoing dehumanizing, stigmatizing, and damaging conversion therapies. Even if she performs her practice to the highest standard and somehow doesn’t manage to accidentally coerce kids into killing themselves, it doesn’t mean every practitioner will have the same standards.

I wish I had the energy to put up a better call to action. Our levers are few, apart from supporting our state representatives to defy the order–call and write, or better, haunt their office and doorstep. Donate to the ACLU and/or a local LGBTQ+ nonprofit. And love thy neighbor as thyself, even the queer ones. Especially the queer ones.