A conservative legal group filed a federal lawsuit against Wisconsin’s governor to end the state’s ban on conversion therapy for minors. The lawsuit argues that the ban violates therapists’ free speech rights under the First Amendment. Wisconsin’s ban applies to licensed mental health professionals who attempt to change minors’ sexual orientations or gender identities. The ban was pursued through executive action beginning in 2020, but it was blocked twice by the Republican legislature, later culminating in a 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision upholding the ban. After a March 2026 U.S. Supreme Court decision involving Colorado, the lawsuit claims the legal standard for defending such bans has become more difficult, requiring higher scrutiny for viewpoint discrimination.
"The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit last week in federal court against Gov. Tony Evers (D) that argues that the state's ban on conversion therapy - the discredited practice of turning LGBTQ+ people straight and cisgender with pseudoscientific methods - violates therapists' free speech rights."
"Wisconsin's conversion therapy ban applies only to licensed mental health professionals who attempt to change minors' sexual orientations or gender identities. The Evers administration tried to implement the ban via executive action starting in 2020, getting blocked twice by the state's Republican legislature. The process culminated in a 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court decision in favor of the Evers administration and the ban."
"But that was before the March 2026 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Chiles v. Salazar, the challenge to Colorado's conversion therapy ban. The Court found that banning conversion therapy is a form of viewpoint discrimination that necessitates higher scrutiny under the First Amendment. While this decision didn't immediately invalidate conversion therapy bans, it made it much harder to defend them in court."
"That is, the Supreme Court in Chiles left state and local conversion therapy bans in place and left it to lower courts to determine whether the state's interest in banning the practice outweighs the free speech concerns those bans"
#conversion-therapy-bans #first-amendment-free-speech #lgbtq-rights #federal-court-lawsuit #supreme-court-ruling
Read at LGBTQ Nation
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