A Christian marriage and family counselor, Brian Tingley, has been appealing a ban on conversion therapy since 2021.
Tingley claimed that the ban was an infraction of his First Amendment rights. In defense of his appeal, Tingley states that the law limits the kind of conversation he can have with his clients—minor or adult.
So, he believes his state-issued license is useless if he does not have the liberty to provide professional counsel as the situation warrants. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court made a final ruling on December 11, dismissing the case.
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In most previous cases involving the LGBTQ+ community, the Supreme Court has ruled a notable number of times in favor of queer rights. However, it was not business as usual on Monday, December 11, 2023, when the Supreme Court declined to hear Tingler’s appeal on the ban by the state of Washington.
For example, the Supreme Court passed a judgment in 2020 that prevents employers from victimizing or laying off their LGBTQ+ employees. However, science has discredited some of the procedures, therapies, and medications used for conversion therapy.
So, Washington joined some other states of the US in banning conversion therapy on minors. The said ban, which stands in almost half of all states in the US, is saying, “Adults can transition and adopt whatever gender identity they wish; they are old enough to make that choice. But for minors, it’s a ‘no’.”
Washington passed the initial ban in 2018. Tingley’s first appeal on the law was to a US District Court in 2021, which eventually dismissed the case. Next, Tingley took the same case to a higher court, the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in 2022.
Unfortunately, the appeal court equally ruled in favor of the state of Washington. Finally, Tingley and his lawyers proceeded to the Supreme Court for redress. However, the Higher court declined to hear the case, consequently upholding the Appeal Court’s ruling.
The Supreme Court did not provide official details on their refusal to give Tingley’s case a hearing. However, Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court passed unofficial comments on the case.
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He explained that the Washington law specifies what a counselor can discuss with a minor. However, it does not lay an outright embargo on discussing gender-related topics with a minor client.
If the minor is consulting about an issue of gender dysphoria, the counselor should not aid the kid in gender conversion. Instead, such professionals can only help minors express their innate identity.
On the other hand, the ruling of the US Court of Appeal was harsher. Judge Ronald Gould clarifies in the verdict that “States do not lose the power to regulate the safety of medical treatments performed under the authority of a state license merely because those treatments are implemented through speech rather than through scalpel.”
Throughout the hearings, however, Tingley enjoyed unflinching support from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
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