SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the
way Monday for enforcement of a first-of-its-kind California law that
bars psychological counseling aimed at turning gay minors straight.
The
justices turned aside a legal challenge brought by supporters of
so-called conversion or reparative therapy. Without comment, they let
stand an August 2013 appeals court ruling that said the ban covered
professional activities that are within the state’s authority to
regulate and doesn’t violate the free speech rights of licensed
counselors and patients seeking treatment.
The 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals ruled last year that California lawmakers properly
showed that therapies designed to change sexual orientation for those
under the age of 18 were outside the scientific mainstream and have been
disavowed by most major medical groups as unproven and potentially
dangerous.
"The Supreme Court has cement shut any possible opening
to allow further psychological child abuse in California," state Sen.
Ted Lieu, the law’s sponsor, said Monday. "The Court’s refusal to accept
the appeal of extreme ideological therapists who practice the quackery
of gay conversion therapy is a victory for child welfare, science and
basic humane principles."
The law says professional therapists and
counselors who use treatments designed to eliminate or reduce same-sex
attractions in their patients would be engaging in unprofessional
conduct and subject to discipline by state licensing boards. It does not
cover the actions of pastors and lay counselors who are unlicensed but
provide such therapy through church programs.
Liberty Counsel, a
Christian legal aid group, had challenged the law, as did other
supporters of the therapy. They argue that lawmakers have no scientific
proof the therapy does harm.
"I am deeply saddened for the
families we represent and for the thousands of children that our
professional clients counsel," Liberty Counsel Chairman Mat Staver said
in a statement. "The minors we represent do not want to act on same-sex
attractions, nor do they want to engage in such behavior."
New
Jersey last year became the second U.S. state to ban gay conversion
therapy with children and teenagers, and Liberty Counsel also has been
fighting that law, which took effect after it was signed by Gov. Chris
Christie. The group’s litigation counsel, Daniel Schmid, said Monday
that the Supreme Court’s refusal to consider a challenge to California’s
law, as opposed to issuing a ruling on the merits, has no bearing on
Liberty Counsel’s case in New Jersey, which is scheduled to be heard by
the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on July 9.
"We hope to get a good ruling out of the 3rd, which will hopefully get us back up to the
Supremes," he said.
California’s
law was supposed to take effect last year, but it has been on hold
while a pair of lawsuits seeking to overturn it made their way to the
Supreme Court.
Now that the high court has declined to take the
case, the state will be able to start enforcing the law after the 9th
Circuit lifts an injunction it put into place during the litigation, an
action that is expected to come within days, according to Christopher
Stoll, a senior staff attorney at the National Center for Lesbian
Rights.
Another eight states and the District of Columbia have
pending legislation modeled after the California and New Jersey laws,
while lawmakers in five other states have refused to pass similar bans.
Meanwhile, the Texas Republican Party this month endorsed reparative
therapy, adopting policy language recognizing "the legitimacy and
efficacy of counseling, which offers reparative therapy and treatment
for those patients seeking healing and wholeness from their homosexual
lifestyle."