WA leads multistate fight to protect youth from conversion ‘therapy’

SEATTLE — Attorney General Nick Brown today led a multistate coalition in an amicus brief defending a Michigan law that prohibits licensed health professionals from practicing conversion “therapy” on minors. Conversion “therapy,” also called sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts, are harmful and ineffective practices that attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.

Michigan’s law prohibits licensed health professionals from practicing conversion therapy on children and youth, and is being challenged in a lawsuit now with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The amicus brief filed by the 19 states and the District of Columbia supports Michigan’s ban on conversion therapy because it is not a safe or effective treatment for any condition, puts youth at risk of serious harms, including increased risks of suicide and depression, and falls below the standard of care for mental health practitioners.

Washington is one of over 25 states that bans or restricts conversion therapy. The practice is repudiated by all leading medical and mental professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychiatric Association.

The brief outlines why the court should reject the arguments against Michigan’s ban on the practice:

• The First Amendment does not shield dangerous and ineffective mental health practices from regulation, nor does it allow licensed providers to operate below a certain standard of care.
• Such bans are consistent with states’ long history of establishing and regulating professional standards of care.
• Striking down such a ban would likely create profound unintended consequences for states’ authority to regulate professional practices within their borders as they have throughout most of the nation’s history.

In 2018, Washington passed SB 5722, which was also challenged in federal court. Washington’s conversion therapy ban was upheld in 2023 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected arguments against the law, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The Supreme Court recently agreed it would take up a challenge against a ban from a different state – Colorado – which will be heard later this fall. The Washington Attorney General’s Office will fight to ensure no young person is subject to dangerous and discredited conversion therapy practices.

Joining Washington on the brief are the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

A copy of the amicus brief can be found here.

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