The Lobbying Group Behind Conversion Therapy
You've probably heard their name. Alliance Defending Freedom, or ADF, presents itself as a legal advocacy organization defending religious liberty and traditional family values. They speak the language of faith, using words we recognize from Sunday sermons and family gatherings.
They promise to protect what matters most to us: our children, our beliefs, our way of life. But here's what they don't tell you.
Behind the careful messaging and faith-rooted rhetoric, ADF has built a long record of legal strategies that would shock even the most conservative folks in our communities. What that record shows isn't a group of individuals looking to protect families. It's a series of maneuvers using religious language to drive a distorted version of faith into our laws in a way that happens to create all kinds of vulnerabilities, not just for families and children, but traditional American values as a whole.
Quick Summary: What You Need to Know About ADF
ADF is a lobbying organization that not only influences laws but sometimes writes laws (over 130 bills in 2022 alone)
Under the pretense of protecting traditional values, their interventions in our law system have effectively opened doors to government intrusion in private lives – the Chiles v. Salazar case that could expand the bounds of what licensed medical professionals can say to children in treatment (with physician-patient confidentiality privilege) is a recent example
ADF is arguing in Chiles v. Salazar that “conversion therapy” should be allowed for minors. Yet one of ADF’s own senior staff members is openly attracted to the same sex — and ADF has not directed him toward this therapy they claim is effective. If the organization truly believed the practice works, they would use it within their own ranks.
Founded in 1993 by approximately 30 leaders of the Christian Right, ADF is a lobbying organization, meaning they use money and other forms of power – like connections to government – to create new laws or change laws that already exist.
Over the past 10 years or so, it has become one of most influential institutions shaping policy on family matters and what it means, and doesn’t, to be an American.
ADF has been called an extremist organization because of their work supporting efforts to make consensual relationships between adults who experience same-sex attraction illegal once again. Think about that for a moment. With so many pressing matters on the table for discussion and even more dangers lurking in society, putting children in harm’s way, this group that claims to defend freedom is actively working to put folks behind bars for what they’re doing in their own homes.
Say what you will about same-sex attraction, but when you open the door for that level of intrusion in the lives of grown folks and invasion of their privacy, that opening can be exploited by just about anyone – and then what?
In 2003, ADF filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas, supporting a state law that made certain private behaviors between adults a criminal offense. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled such laws unconstitutional—but ADF wanted them upheld. In that same brief, ADF's attorneys made unfounded claims linking people who experience same-sex attraction to harm against children, despite no credible evidence supporting such assertions.
This is the organization now representing the therapist, Kaley Chiles, in Chiles v. Salazar, who is trying to overturn Colorado's law that protects minors from "conversion therapy" practices.
Pattern of Manipulation
ADF doesn't just file one-off cases. They write the laws themselves. I didn’t realize the ballots I was casting in every election were going to a lobbying group, did you?
In 2022 alone, ADF drafted at least 130 bills across 34 states, with more than 30 passing into law. These aren't small little procedural matters – they're sweeping changes that affect how families navigate some of life's most sensitive moments with their children.
The organization has opposed protections for minors in multiple contexts. They've fought against workplace protections, argued against access to appropriate bathrooms for kids struggling with how they see themselves, and championed the rights of businesses to turn away families they disagree with. In 2020, ADF defended a funeral home that fired an employee simply for being who they were – a case they lost 6-3 before the Supreme Court.
Internationally, ADF has supported laws criminalizing who people are in countries like Belize and Jamaica. They've advocated for policies allowing state-sanctioned medical interventions abroad that would be considered violations of human dignity in America. And they've gained advisory status at the United Nations and in the European Union, giving them a global platform to spread these positions.
This isn't the work of an organization protecting families. It's the work of an organization using families as a political tool.
The "Conversion Therapy" Connection
Now ADF represents Kaley Chiles in her lawsuit against Colorado's Minor "Conversion Therapy" Law. The law is simple: it prohibits licensed mental health professionals from practicing "conversion therapy" on minors – attempts to change a young person's sense of who they're attracted to or how they see themselves inside.
Why does this law exist? Because decades of research show these practices don't work. They can't make someone straight if they're not. They can't change someone's internal sense of who they are. What they can do is cause profound harm—anxiety, depression, damaged family relationships, and in the worst cases, thoughts of ending one's own life. Even experts who follow the word of God have backed away from these debunked practices as the evidence of harm mounted and the lack of any proven benefit became undeniable.
Yet ADF wants Colorado's law struck down, arguing it violates free speech rights. But this isn't about regular, everyday speech - it's about professional conduct. We don't let doctors practice unproven, harmful treatments on patients and call it "free speech."
Here's what makes ADF's position particularly troubling: they claim to operate from deeply held religious convictions about traditional values. Yet one of their own senior staff members is himself attracted to people of the same sex – a fact he's shared publicly on a personal blog.
If ADF truly believed their own arguments – that therapeutic interventions could change a person's orientation or identity – wouldn't they have insisted their own employee undergo such "treatment"?
The fact that they haven't speaks volumes about what they actually believe versus what they're willing to argue in court to advance their agenda.
The Real Cost for Families
When ADF wins cases that expand so-called "religious liberty" at the expense of protecting vulnerable kids, real families pay the price.
Parents like Brandon Boulware, a Christian father from Missouri, know this firsthand.
"I spent years trying to change my child instead of loving him as he was," Boulware said. "When I finally let go of my fear and let him be who God made him to be, I got my son back."
These aren't just talking points. They're the lived experiences of families who fell for the promise that "conversion therapy" and similar approaches would bring peace, only to find heartbreak instead.
Research shows that what strengthens families isn't attempting to change children, but rather supporting them through difficult questions while maintaining the parent-child bond. When professionals practice "conversion therapy," they often blame parents for their child's struggles—suggesting mom or dad did something wrong that caused the confusion. This only heightens parental guilt and alienates kids from the very people who love them most.
Colorado's law protects minors from this harm. It ensures that licensed professionals work to strengthen families, not tear them apart. And it respects parental authority by making sure parents receive accurate, evidence-based information from trusted professionals, not unproven theories that lead families down dead-end paths.
What Parents & Guardians Like You Deserve
You deserve better than organizations that wrap harmful agendas in faith language. You deserve to know that when someone claims to defend religious liberty, they're not actually working to criminalize private decisions, restrict access to evidence-based care, or set legal precedents that could harm families for generations.
ADF's legal strategies aren't about protecting your family's autonomy. They're about establishing case law that gives licensed professionals unchecked power to practice unproven, potentially harmful interventions behind closed doors—all while calling it "free speech."
As people of faith, we're called to love our children, protect the vulnerable, and discern truth from manipulation. When an organization has a documented history of supporting criminalization, defending discrimination, and opposing protections for kids, we must ask ourselves: Is this really about faith? Or is it about power, money, and influence dressed up in religious language?
Your family's well-being is too important to trust to organizations whose track record shows one thing while their messaging promises another. You are the expert on your child. Don't let ADF or any other outside organization decide what's best for your family based on an agenda that has nothing to do with your child's actual needs.
Real faith-based resources exist to help families navigate challenging times without falling for scams or practices that make things worse. Resources created by parents who've walked this path before you. Resources that honor both your child's well-being and your family's values.
Your child needs you – not a legal organization using your family's situation to advance a political agenda.
Trust your love, trust your faith, and trust that protecting your child from proven harms isn't a betrayal of your beliefs. It's the fullest expression of them.
