The Washington Post notes that the Supreme Court's decision against a ban on "gay conversion therapy" had a big majority:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday found that a Colorado law banning “conversion therapy” for gay and transgender minors probably violates free speech rights, the latest in a string of decisions by the high court rolling back protections for LGBTQ+ people and expanding the rights of the religious.
In an 8-1 ruling, an ideologically diverse majority ruled for an evangelical therapist who argued the state prohibition infringed on her First Amendment rights. Kaley Chiles said she wanted to counsel religious teens dealing with sexual orientation issues and gender dysphoria in ways consistent with biblical teachings.
Australia has some of the strongest bans on such therapy, it seems.
The whole problem I have always felt about it is whether it's a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Sure, the great majority of such therapy offered is going to be from a conservative religious viewpoint and is quite understandably likely to be psychologically damaging. And, obviously, some of the methods they use are entirely objectionable:
Conversion therapy is a pseudoscientific practice whereby an LGBTQI+ person is subjected to methods of torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which is instigated by individuals with the aim of changing their sexual orientation and / or gender identity. Some of the methods used include beatings, rape, electrocution, forced medication, confinement, forced nudity, verbal abuse and aversion therapy. The most extreme methods include lobotomy, castration and clitoridectomy.
(That last link goes to an article that says those methods are historical - and it's a bit of a stretch to include that in an article about banning modern psychotherapy.)
But....shouldn't there be some room for psychological help to be available to stop unwanted sexual attractions (or acting on them), whether it be directed towards the opposite sex, or the same sex? Seems to me that the outright bans put an unwarranted absolute cordon around a whole area that some people might legitimately want reasonable, and secular, help with. (Probably very few people do seek such help, but still...)
