On March 31, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in my case, Chiles v. Salazar. It concerns a Colorado law that forbids licensed counselors like me from talking with gender-confused kids to help them regain comfort with their bodies - even if that's what the kids want. I filed suit with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom to challenge this censorship, and the justices have now decided 8-1 in my favor.
It's reassuring to have the court protect freedom of speech. While Colorado officials may honestly think that a boy can become a girl, our country was founded on the right to engage in healthy debate - even when the government disagrees with us.
This ruling also helps protect the mental, physical and emotional health of our children. But Colorado's law puts their health at risk. Specifically, this law required counselors like me to avoid conversations with young clients who wanted to realign their identity with their sex, while encouraging kids to reject their sex.
SUPREME COURT BLOCKS COLORADO'S SO-CALLED 'CONVERSION THERAPY' BAN ON FIRST AMENDMENT GROUNDS
In effect, the state is forcing counselors to be silent or participate in a one-size-fits-all mandate pushing kids down the path of gender transition and toward dangerous drugs and surgeries. This mandate forbids certain kids and families from getting the counseling they want that actually helps them - counseling to help them accept their bodies. Colorado thinks it knows better than families what counseling they should receive.
The law also constrains my best instincts as a critical thinker and clinically trained counselor. I should be listening to my clients rather than steering them toward a state-ordained conclusion. Instead, the state law would compel me to suppress both my beliefs and professional training, when it's that very combination that often attracts clients to seek me out.
Colorado's censorship deprives these young people of what they want most: someone to talk with who will genuinely listen … who will try to understand their individual experiences and sensibilities … who can walk with them through their pains and confusions and help them find their way to thoughtful decisions and a happier future.
Thankfully, our highest court has now recognized the danger of what Colorado and other states have been pushing on my profession. Throughout our history, government officials have repeatedly tried to use censorship in the name of protecting people from hearing ideas considered too dangerous. And once again, the court had to explain why censorship can't be the answer to our disagreements. With their decision, the justices are offering Colorado a refresher on First Amendment basics and affirming that government cannot silence viewpoints in the counseling room.
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But this victory calls for further action. I plead with counselors to rethink gender ideology's claim that it's possible to be born in the wrong body and to recommit to protecting young people. Research indicates that most children experiencing gender dysphoria - including about 90% of children before puberty - will desist, meaning they will come to identify with their given sex. But those natural desistance rates collapse once kids begin to socially transition and are treated like the opposite sex. And less desistance means an increased number of kids eventually undergoing harmful drugs and surgeries with no proven benefits.
Just because some professional groups cite their own authority as "evidence" otherwise, and some in the media embrace this fad, doesn't make it so. Rather, we should study the science that bluntly contradicts the fad - and do so with the same fair-mindedness and rigor we bring to the other issues of our profession. Let's admit as a profession that, according to many, we have lost the public's trust and must work to rebuild it.
The kids struggling with issues of identity deserve this.
These are the opportunities the Supreme Court ruling will help make possible. I hope we can share the justices' commitment to protecting young people and their families from bad science, compromised freedoms and political intrusions on the right to pursue truth without being silenced.
Kaley Chiles is a licensed professional counselor in Colorado.
