8-1 Against the Bans
On March 31, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Chiles v. Salazar that conversion therapy bans constitute speech regulation subject to heightened constitutional scrutiny. The ruling sent the case back to lower courts and immediately put 23 state bans at risk.
23 states banned conversion therapy. The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 those bans are speech regulation. Kentucky already rescinded its ban. Virginia stopped enforcing. Colorado rewrote its law within weeks.
Conversion therapy attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ youth who undergo it are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide. Every major medical association in the United States has condemned the practice, including the AMA, APA, American Academy of Pediatrics, and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
States Are Already Moving
Kentucky’s legislature overrode Governor Beshear’s veto on March 27, 2025 to rescind his executive order banning conversion therapy for minors. Virginia’s Attorney General entered a consent decree in June 2025 to stop enforcing the state’s ban.
Colorado responded differently. Within weeks of the ruling, the legislature passed HB26-1322, rewriting its conversion therapy ban with a “viewpoint neutral” framework designed to survive the new constitutional standard. The question is whether other states will follow Colorado’s model or Kentucky’s.
Twenty-three states and D.C. still have bans on the books. Four additional states plus Puerto Rico have partial restrictions. The Chiles ruling does not strike down these laws, but it gives challengers the legal framework to do so state by state.
What You Can Do
- Contact your state legislators and ask them to defend or pass conversion therapy bans. 20+ states still have bans that may now face legal challenges after the Supreme Court ruling.
- Contact your state legislators and ask them to defend or strengthen your state’s conversion therapy ban using Colorado’s model.
- Read the LGBTQ Rights hub and the youth mental health brief.