- United States
- Mich.
- Letter
Pass legislation modeled on Colorado's HB26-1322 in our state. After the Supreme Court gutted conversion therapy bans in Chiles v. Salazar, Colorado's private right of action approach is the only constitutional path forward to protect LGBTQ+ youth from this torture.
The model is smart law. It allows survivors to sue practitioners with no statute of limitations, making conversion therapy financially toxic without triggering First Amendment challenges. The carveouts protect legitimate therapy that supports patient self-discovery while targeting practices that steer people toward predetermined outcomes. This isn't theoretical harm—a 2020 study found LGBTQ+ youth subjected to conversion therapy were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide. Every major medical organization calls it dangerous and ineffective.
Republicans used this exact mechanism in Texas's SB 8 to ban abortion and in Kansas to target trans people using bathrooms. Now we're using their playbook to save lives instead of destroying them. The bill has built-in protections against misuse, requiring courts to weigh duration, intensity, age, vulnerability, and expert testimony to establish harm.
Introduce this legislation in our state and work with colleagues nationwide to replicate it everywhere. This is how we protect kids when the Supreme Court won't.