The Supreme Court could rule any day on Chiles v. Salazar, a case that will define what licensed therapists can and cannot say to minor patients behind closed doors in the context of families seeking professional counseling around issues of gender confusion or same-sex attraction.

As anticipation builds, you'll hear compelling claims about religious freedom, parental rights, and protecting children from themselves. Some will sound reasonable. Some will sound urgent. 

Many will be misleading. 

Before you form an opinion, consider what Joyce Calvo and many other parents like her wish they had known about ‘conversion therapy.’

This post expands on themes from the first edition of the Conversion Truth For Families email newsletter. Want honest answers about protecting your family? Subscribe to the CT4F newsletter for evidence-based and faith-aligned information from folks like you and reliable research you can trust. 

Key Takeaways

• The law at the center of the Chiles v. Salazar Supreme Court case was designed to stop licensed therapists from applying unproven practices on children and teens.

• Pactitioners of “conversion therapy”, sometimes also referred to as sexual orientation change efforts (SOCE), are licensed mental health counselors, and many employ proven methodologies on patients, but in all the wrong ways, often causing deep and sometimes irreparable harm to kids. 

• Real families share what they wish they'd known before trusting these practitioners

When Good Intentions Meet Bad Outcomes

Joyce is a devout Catholic mother of four whose daughter, Alana, sought out conversion therapy at 19 for same-sex attraction. Alana wanted to change. She pursued treatment willingly, desperately hoping the practitioners' promises were true.

They weren't. At 19, Alana died by suicide.

"I cry out to God every day," Joyce testified in sworn statements to the Supreme Court, "not only for the loss of Alana, but for the destruction that conversion therapy causes to the most sacred of relationships: the relationship between a child and their parents, between a child and God, and between a child and herself."

Joyce isn't alone. Parents across the country submitted similar testimony, real stories with real consequences, and hard-won perspectives you deserve to hear.

Why "Just Talk Therapy" Isn't Just Talking

Practitioners market conversion therapy as faith-aligned counseling combined with established clinical methods. They have licenses. Diplomas on office walls. Reassuring credentials.

What they don't have is evidence that it works.

What they do have is a pattern that emerges again and again, even when young people desperately wanted to change:

The methods repurpose legitimate clinical techniques (like EMDR) toward a predetermined outcome rather than following where the client's actual needs lead. A therapist pursuing conversion therapy isn't helping a teen understand themselves better. They're steering toward a specific destination regardless of what's truly causing distress.

The framework introduces blame and false causality. When the promised results don't materialize (and they never do), these practitioners often point fingers at parents. "Dad isn't masculine enough." "Mom was too involved." The child didn't experience the "right" family environment. It wedges shame between parent and child while the practitioner collects fees and avoids accountability.

Short-term compliance masks long-term harm. Some families see initial behavioral changes that feel like progress. But forced suppression isn't healing. Depression deepens. Anxiety intensifies. Trust erodes. Faith becomes a source of trauma rather than comfort.

What Colorado's Law Actually Does

The Colorado Minor Conversion Therapy Law doesn't impose belief systems or censor viewpoints. It protects patients, minors, from licensed mental health professionals applying unproven approaches in a clinical setting.

That's not persecution. That's consumer protection.

If a teen is struggling with questions about identity or attraction, ethical therapy helps them understand what they're experiencing, why, and how to move forward in a way that will enable them to live a healthy and sustainable life for the long run. It doesn't start with the assumption that change is necessary or even possible.

Conversion therapy flips that relationship. It tells vulnerable young people (and their worried parents) that the answer is already known; you just need to comply with the right techniques. When those techniques fail, it blames everyone except the practitioner.

Why This Case Matters to Your Family

Alliance Defending Freedom and similar organizations frame this case as protecting religious counselors from government overreach. They cast the State as predatory. They escalate culture-war language to bypass rational scrutiny.

Here's what they're actually defending: the right of licensed professionals to promise outcomes they cannot deliver, charge families in crisis, and escape accountability when harm results.

Christian families deserve better than exploitation disguised as moral protection. Your faith is not a permission slip for fraud.

The Supreme Court will decide whether states can protect minors from practices that don't work and cause documented harm. But you don't need to wait for a ruling to protect your own family.

Ask questions. Demand evidence. Trust your instincts when promises sound too good to be true.

And if someone tells you conversion therapy works "under the right circumstances," ask them to define "right circumstances" in a way that doesn't blame the child or parent when it inevitably fails.

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