03/31/2026
Statement on today's SCTOUS decision:
"At FSCW, we unequivocally condemn today's ruling by the Supreme Court which overturned the State of Colorado's ban on so-called 'conversion therapy,' a collective term for non-evidence based practices aimed at changing an individual's sexual orientation to be heterosexual.
Decades of research have consistently shown that all such attempts to change a person's sexual orientation are not only ineffective, but harmful to the mental health of youth and adults receiving such services. They increase feelings of self-hatred, low self-esteem, and even intensify suicidal ideation, attempts, and deaths. Furthermore, multiple individuals who previously claimed to have successfully changed their sexual orientations in the faith-based "ex-gay" movement have made public statements years later that they were in denial and that their sexual orientations never really changed.
Anyone claiming to be a conversion therapist is violating professional ethics of the ACA and APA, engaging in malpractice. They are engaging in the crime of fraud by promising to be able to do something which no research has ever found to be possible, while (often unintentionally) doing harm to their clients. Accepting payment for a service which does not have any evidence to be effective is unethical, malpractice, and fraudulent.
Today's ruling is yet another example of judicial overreach into mental healthcare decisions by those who have no mental healthcare training or expertise. This ruling will result in harm to all those individuals (usually minors) forced to receive these inherently harmful services."
