Lansing — The state of Michigan has agreed not to enforce a law passed by the Democratic-majority Legislature in 2023 that bans conversion therapy.
The state and Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties, which filed the lawsuit challenging the statute, were part of a Friday stipulated order, in which U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering declared Michigan’s conversion therapy ban to violate the right to free speech.
In the order, Beckering prohibited the state from enforcing the conversion therapy ban “against licensed professionals who engage in therapy that consists exclusively of talking.”
The Friday order recognizes the relief the plaintiffs are entitled to under a U.S. Supreme Court order that found a similar conversion therapy ban, in Chiles v. Salazar, was unconstitutional, said Kim Bush, a spokeswoman for Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office.
“We remain deeply disappointed in this decision and have grave concerns for the implications this could bring for the safety and welfare of Michigan’s children,” Bush said.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represented Catholic Charities and its counselors, called the order a “major victory for children, counselors and common sense.”
“Kids who are hurting deserve compassion, not a one-way ticket to harmful drugs, hormones, and surgery,” said Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at Becket. “Now counselors can offer compassionate counseling without fearing that state bureaucrats will come knocking.”
The stipulated agreement comes after a March U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found unconstitutional a similar Colorado law that banned conversion therapy, a form of counseling or therapy seeking to get gay, lesbian or transgender individuals to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The SCOTUS opinion found Colorado’s law not only banned physical interventions, but “censors speech based on viewpoint.”
“Colorado may regard its policy as essential to public health and safety,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the March majority opinion. “Certainly, censorious governments throughout history have believed the same. But the First Amendment stands as a shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country.”
Michigan’s law, essentially overturned under the Colorado decision, was passed by Michigan’s Democratic-controlled state government in 2023.
Prior to the March Supreme Court decision, Michigan’s law had also been enjoined by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in a December ruling.
Michigan’s law, which took effect in February 2024, specifically permitted counseling that provided “assistance to an individual undergoing a gender transition,” but banned counseling that “seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity,” even if the client seeks that treatment. A therapist found to be violating the law would be subject to a loss of license or fines up to $250,000.
Catholic Charities filed its suit in July 2024 and was initially unsuccessful at the district court level. Beckering, an appointee of U.S. President Joe Biden, had denied a preliminary injunction in January 2025, finding that talk therapy was a conduct or treatment, not speech protected by the First Amendment.
But in December, the Sixth Circuit ruled in a decision written by Judge Raymond Kethledge, appointed by President George W. Bush, that the Michigan law discriminated against speech based on viewpoint: Allowing talk therapy that provides assistance to a person undergoing a gender transition, but banning therapy that seeks to change a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity to align with biological sex or religious beliefs.
The state’s argument that talk therapy falls under “conduct” regulated by the state’s licensing rules rather than speech allowed for under the First Amendment does not hold up, the 6th Circuit majority opinion indicated.
“That argument faces strong headwinds as applied to counseling that consists solely of spoken words — spoken words, moreover, that for these plaintiffs reflect the moral beliefs of therapists and client alike,” wrote Kethledge, who is from Michigan. “Indeed, that the plaintiffs’ speech is guided by those beliefs is shown by the plaintiffs’ referral to other therapists of clients whose goals conflict with those beliefs.”
eleblanc@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan won’t enforce conversion therapy ban after litigation
Reporting by Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
