On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled against a law banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ kids in Colorado, one of about twenty states that ban the practice.
The Court sided with a Christian counselor who argued that banning conversion therapy violates the First Amendment. The justices agreed that the law raises free speech concerns and sent it back to a lower court.
But conversion therapy isn’t just any kind of “free speech.” Studies from the American Psychological Association and American Psychiatric Association show that kids who are forced through conversion therapy experience higher rates of depression, substance abuse, and an increased risk of suicide.
Every one of those data points is a real person. Drew Amstutz is one of them.
