Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is defending the state’s ban on conversation therapy for minors. filing a legal brief in response to a federal lawsuit that’s seeking to overturn the ban.
“Conversion therapy has caused immeasurable damage to countless young people,” Nessel said in a press release. “My department will continue to defend this crucial law and work to dismiss this meritless lawsuit to ensure Michigan remains a place where all children feel accepted, loved, and supported.”
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Lansing therapist Emily McJones and Catholic Charities of Jackson Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties, claims a recent state law violates free speech protections because “it targets religious speech and interferes with the right of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”
House Bill 4616, which was signed into law last year, penalizes mental health care providers if they try to change a young person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Conversion therapy has been widely discredited by mental health professionals including the American Psychological Association and the World Psychiatric Association.
In Nessel’s brief opposing the plaintiff’s lawsuit, she states the lawsuit lacks legal standing and notes that the state has not received complaints under the law since it took effect in February.
“The law prohibiting this debunked and tortuous practice does not infringe on free speech or religious liberties,” she said.
Nessel argues that the plaintiffs are not performing “conversion therapy” as described under the law.
“Plaintiffs consistently emphasize that they allow clients to lead when setting or maintaining therapy goals and stop short of saying they actively seek to change their clients’ sexual orientation or gender identity,” states the brief.
The attorney general says Michigan maintains the right to regulate professional conduct like licensing mental health professionals and doing so is not in violation of the First Amendment.
“HB 4616 does not bar licensed mental health professionals (LMPH) from speaking on the topics of gender identity or sexual orientation generally, or conversion therapy specifically,” the brief continues. “A therapist is not barred from discussing, or even endorsing conversion therapy. It is administration of the treatment by LMHPs that is prohibited”
In a statement to WKAR, Luke Goodrich, who is representing the plaintiffs as senior counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said the state is pushing children towards life-altering, irreversible medical interventions.
“Michigan is muzzling counselors who want to help children in distress in a cautious and compassionate way,” said Goodrich. “Michigan is muzzling counselors who want to help children in distress in a cautious and compassionate way.”
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