"Chen, a devoutly religious teenager, had always felt different from other girls: She had, from a young age, felt a calling to be a nun. There was a problem with this. Chen also had realized that she was attracted to other girls. She sought advice from her priest, a controversial and firebrand traditionalist, and he gave her disastrous advice: She should not tell her family, who might encourage her toward sin by affirming her sexual orientation."
"But now, the practice may make a return. Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Chiles v. Salazar, which dealt with Colorado's conversion therapy ban. In the arguments, the justices appeared sympathetic to the free speech argument made by the Christian mental health practitioner Kaley Chiles, a counselor in Colorado Springs. Chiles has not actually faced any kind of censure or other practica"
Alana Chen began hiding her sexual orientation at 14 after a Catholic priest advised secrecy, believing her family might encourage sin. She experienced a lifelong religious calling to be a nun while also feeling attraction to girls. The priest encouraged conversion therapy, and Chen spent seven years attempting to change her sexual orientation. Chen left journals expressing shame and despair and died by suicide in 2019 at age 24. Conversion therapy is widely considered cruel and nonscientific by mental health professionals and is outlawed in more than 20 states. The Supreme Court heard Chiles v. Salazar, where justices appeared sympathetic to a free-speech challenge against Colorado’s ban, raising the possibility of rolling back protections.
Read at Slate Magazine
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