Tenth Circuit keeps Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors

A federal appeals court has kept Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors in force, leaving licensed counselors bound by the rule. In Chiles v. Salazar, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court in full, siding with state regulators who said the law reaches professional treatment, not private belief or debate. For parents and minors looking for mental-health care, the immediate effect is that the state can still police what happens inside its licensed system.

A rule about treatment, not talk

The court’s key move was to classify the law as regulation of professional conduct. That means Colorado can bar a particular form of therapy when it is offered to minors by licensed professionals, even if the treatment is delivered through words in a counseling session.

That distinction matters because the First Amendment protects speech, but states traditionally have more room to regulate licensed medical and mental-health practice.

What counselors can still say

The ruling does not silence criticism of the ban. Counselors can still discuss the issue, say they disagree with the law, and refer families elsewhere.

What they cannot do, under the state rule as the court read it, is provide conversion therapy itself as licensed treatment for minors.

Why the decision reaches beyond one case

The fight sits inside a larger national argument over so-called professional speech, where states want to regulate care and therapists say the Constitution follows the words inside the room.

For Colorado, the decision preserves a tool for drawing lines inside its licensed mental-health system. For families, it means the ban remains one of the protections the state can enforce.