Court Stops Michigan From ‘Harming Children’ by Forcing Transgender Double Standard, Lawyer Says

A district court judge blocked Michigan from enforcing a “conversion therapy” law, in a ruling that protects children, according to the attorney representing Catholic therapists challenging the law.

“Michigan was harming children—pushing kids toward a lifetime of harmful, irreversible medical interventions by muzzling compassionate counselors who could help them,” Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the religious freedom law firm Becket and the lead attorney for counselors challenging the law, told the Daily Signal after the court ruling Thursday.

“Thankfully, the Constitution was there to stop them,” Goodrich added. “Now kids can get the compassionate, scientifically based counseling they need—which is a win for kids, counselors, and common sense.”

A district court judge blocked Michigan from enforcing part of its law banning “conversion therapy” for minors, ruling the law violates the First Amendment by compelling therapists to support transgender ideology.

“For example, speech that supports and affirms an individual’s desire to undergo a gender transition is permitted,” the lawsuit states. “Speech that supports and affirms an individual’s desire to embrace her biological sex is forbidden.”

The ‘Conversion Therapy’ Ban

In July 2023, Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed two laws banning “conversion therapy” for minors and defining the term to include “any practice or treatment by a mental health professional that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” The law also states that “conversion therapy does not include counseling that provides assistance to an individual undergoing a gender transition,” among other things.

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Emily McJones, a licensed therapist who runs Little Flower Counseling in Jackson, and Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties sued to block enforcement of the laws as applied to them. According to the lawsuit, Catholic Charities and McJones provide patient-driven talk therapy from a Catholic perspective, and their patients have reported struggling to reconcile their faith with same-sex attraction or gender dysphoria (the painful and persistent identification with the gender opposite their sex).

The counselors help minors address the underlying causes of their discomfort, alleviate their distress, and embrace their biology without resorting to sex-rejecting procedures.

The First Amendment and ‘Conversion Therapy’

The counselors argued, in the lawsuit’s first count, that the law violates the First Amendment’s free speech clause by imposing a “content-based restriction on speech,” noting that it only bars patient-directed talk therapy in one direction on LGBTQ issues.

While a federal court initially refused to block the law’s enforcement against counselors, the law firm Becket appealed and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in their favor, urging the lower court to impose a preliminary injunction.

In March, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a therapist in a very similar case, Chiles v. Salazar. The court enjoined Colorado’s enforcement of a similar ban on “conversion therapy,” ruling that Colorado could not enforce the law against a Christian therapist who offers patient-directed talk therapy and who holds to traditional Christian teaching on gender and sexuality.

Whitmer, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, and the other defendants agreed to settle Catholic Charities’ case, and a district court judge issued a permanent injunction Thursday, holding that the law, as applied against the therapists, violates the First Amendment. The injunction blocks Michigan officials from penalizing therapists for providing talk therapy.

The order notes that the parties have entered into a settlement to determine attorney fees.

“Plaintiffs have demonstrated success on the merits of count one in their complaint and established irreparable injury and that an injunction is in the public interest,” the judge wrote.

The offices of Whitmer and Nessel did not immediately respond to the Daily Signal’s request for comment.

Why Therapy?

Kaley Chiles, the Christian therapist in the Colorado case, told the Daily Signal that she thinks talk therapy is a better way to address gender dysphoria than the sex-rejecting procedures euphemistically described as “gender-affirming care.”

“I think there’s a conflation of feelings and reality” on gender dysphoria, she said. “We treat eating disorders, addictions, even trauma—trauma treatment is essentially the process of invalidating your feelings.”

“Over the course of therapy, what you want is actually a full invalidation in thought, in feeling, in sensation, in experience, that the trauma response is true,” she explained.

She cited a peer-reviewed study finding little evidence for positive impacts from sex-rejecting procedures, and others suggesting they cause harm.

Goodrich, the attorney for Catholic Charities, noted that “Michigan is now admitting its law is unconstitutional.”

“Its surrender confirms that the Constitution and the best available science are on the side of counselors who help children find peace with their bodies,” he said. “States still trying to censor that care should take note.”