The Dangers of Conversion Therapy: What Chiles v Salazar Could Mean for LGBTQ+ Youth

The Supreme Court Case Chiles v Salazar is posed to overturn bans on conversion therapy. Justices are currently hearing the challenge to a Colorado state law that protects youth under the age of 18 from being subjected to conversion therapy by licensed mental health clinicians.

Jack Turban, MD, a pediatric psychiatrist and the author of the book Free to Be: Understanding Kids & Gender Identity, shared how dangerous conversion therapy would be for young LGBTQ+ patients with Psychiatric Times. Here's what you need to know.

More About the Case

In 2019, Colorado passed a law banning conversion therapy for minors. More than 20 other states followed suit, passing laws that prohibit state-licensed mental health professionals from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

In 2022, Kaley Chiles, a Christian mental health counselor in Colorado, filed a lawsuit against the state of Colorado with the claim that the law in question infringes on her freedom of speech. The respondent, Patty Salazar, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, is representing the state of Colorado.

If the law is overturned, conversion therapy could return not just in Colorado, but across the nation. Furthermore, Colorado and other states will no longer be able to regulate mental health treatments that threaten the well-being of LGBTQ+ minors.¹

More on Conversion Therapy

Conversion therapy are practices that seek to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

According to research, LGBTQ+ youth who are subjected to conversion therapy are more than 2 times as likely to attempt suicide and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts in the past year.²

Dr Turban is a pediatric psychiatrist, author of the book Free to Be: Understanding Kids & Gender Identity, and Psychiatric Times advisory board member.

References

1. Chiles v. Salazar: what you need to know about the U.S. Supreme Court case on conversion therapy. The Trevor Project. August 25, 2025. Accessed October 28, 2025. https://www.thetrevorproject.org/blog/chiles-v-salazar/

2. Green AE, Price-Feeney M, Dorrison SH, Pick CJ. Self-reported conversion efforts and suicidality among US LGBTQ youths and young adults, 2018. Am J Public Health. 2020;110(8):1221-1227.