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After a landmark Supreme Court ruling cracked open the door to conversion therapy for minors, Colorado lawmakers moved swiftly to protect LGBTQ+ youth. Faith-based resources like Conversion Truth for Families are offering a path forward for parents caught in the crossfire.

On the morning of March 31, 2026 (International Transgender Day of Visibility), the United States Supreme Court handed down one of its most consequential rulings on LGBTQ+ rights in years. In an 8-1 decision in Chiles v. Salazar, the Court ruled that Colorado’s 2019 ban on conversion therapy for minors, as applied to talk therapy conducted by licensed mental health professionals, violated the First Amendment. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, concluded that the law regulated speech based on viewpoint and therefore required the most demanding level of constitutional review, known as strict scrutiny, before it could stand.

For LGBTQ+ advocates, medical professionals, and the parents of transgender and gender-questioning youth, the ruling landed like a gut punch. Colorado had been a national leader in protecting minors from the discredited practice, and the Court’s decision threatened not just the state’s own law but the conversion therapy bans enacted in more than 20 other states and hundreds of municipalities.

Colorado’s response was swift and deliberate.

A Legislative Answer: What HB26-1322 Does

Thirty-seven days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Colorado General Assembly passed House Bill 26-1322, known formally as the Civil Actions for Conversion Therapy Survivors Act. The bill cleared the legislature on May 7, 2026, and now heads to the desk of Governor Jared Polis, who signed Colorado’s original 2019 conversion therapy ban and is widely expected to act.

The legislation is carefully engineered to address precisely the constitutional weakness the Supreme Court identified in the prior law. Where the 2019 statute prohibited therapists from discussing conversion-related topics (which the Court found to be viewpoint-based speech regulation), HB26-1322 takes a different approach. It redefines conversion therapy not based on the viewpoints a therapist may express, but based on the outcome a therapist is steering a patient toward.

Under the new definition, conversion therapy is any treatment by a licensed mental health professional that directs a patient toward a “predetermined outcome” regarding their sexual orientation or gender identity. The law is, by design, viewpoint-neutral: a therapist who steers a child toward transition and a therapist who steers a child away from transition are both potentially liable if they’re pushing a predetermined destination rather than supporting their client’s authentic exploration.

“This decision only reinforces the urgent need for state-level protections,” One Colorado, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy organization, said after the Supreme Court’s ruling. HB26-1322, the group said, “provides a pathway for accountability, allowing survivors to seek justice against those who administer this harmful practice.”

The bill expands legal accountability in two significant ways. First, it creates a private right of civil action against licensed mental health professionals who engage in conversion therapy, as well as against the entities that hired, supervised, or exercised authority over them. Second, and perhaps more consequentially, it removes the statute of limitations entirely for these claims. Survivors can now bring a lawsuit at any point in their lifetime.

That provision directly responds to a well-documented reality: the harm inflicted by conversion therapy often takes years, even decades, to fully surface. Trauma, shame, and the psychological conditioning that frequently accompanies these practices can make it nearly impossible for survivors to come forward within the two-year window that existed under prior Colorado law.

“This bill recognizes that real harm can be inflicted in the name of therapy, and that this harm might not be fully understood for many years,” said bill sponsor Sen. Lisa Cutter (D-Littleton) in a statement. “We are simply allowing people to have the time to process and understand the trauma that might have been inflicted, and seek the remedies already available to them under Colorado law.”

Sen. Kyle Mullica, a co-sponsor, was even more pointed: “For over a decade, we’ve known that ‘conversion therapy’ increases suicidality and exacerbates depression and anxiety for LGBTQ+ Coloradans. In light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling, it’s vital that we create avenues for those who have been subjected to ‘conversion therapy’ to get some justice.”

Understanding Chiles v. Salazar: What the Court Actually Said

To understand why HB26-1322 matters, it helps to understand what Chiles v. Salazar did, and did not, decide.

The case was brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado who described herself as offering “faith-informed” counseling. Backed by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a well-funded conservative legal organization, she argued that Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy prevented her from even discussing certain topics with clients who had voluntarily sought her out for help, which she characterized as a violation of her First Amendment free speech rights.

The Supreme Court did not rule that conversion therapy is safe, effective, or medically sound. It did not overturn Colorado’s law outright. What it held, in a narrow but consequential finding, is that Colorado’s 2019 statute regulated the viewpoint of a therapist’s speech, allowing therapists to advocate for gender transition but not against it, and that such viewpoint-based regulation triggers strict constitutional scrutiny.

The ruling was a legal ruling, not a scientific one. As the American Counseling Association noted in the immediate aftermath, “The Supreme Court’s ruling is deeply troubling, but it does not change what decades of research have consistently shown: conversion therapy causes real, measurable harm.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the lone dissenter, read her dissent from the bench, a rare and pointed act of emphasis. “To do anything other than allow Colorado’s regulation of medical treatment,” she wrote, “opens a dangerous can of worms. It threatens to impair States’ ability to regulate the provision of medical care in any respect.” She warned that the majority’s reasoning could imperil states’ authority to regulate all manner of licensed professional conduct from attorneys to physicians if that conduct involves spoken words.

Legal scholars have largely agreed that the ruling creates serious downstream risks, and not just for LGBTQ+ protections. Noah Feldman of Harvard Law School wrote in Bloomberg that if the Court treats talk therapy as protected speech, it would “undermine numerous regulations that govern professional conduct performed verbally, from law to the provision of financial services and transactions.”

For Colorado’s LGBTQ+ community and its allies, the upshot of Chiles was immediate: without legislative intervention, the state’s ban on conversion therapy for minors would almost certainly be struck down on remand. HB26-1322 is Colorado’s answer.

The Medical Consensus Has Not Changed

Whatever the Court held as a constitutional matter, the science on conversion therapy remains unambiguous and unanimous.

Every major medical and mental health organization in the United States the American Psychological Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and more than a dozen others formally opposes conversion therapy and condemns it as harmful. That consensus has not been shaken by Chiles v. Salazar, and it will not be.

The research underlying that consensus is extensive. A landmark 2022 report from the Behavior Therapy Task Force found that sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts “have been discredited by decades of scientific research as ineffective and harmful,” and that “a growing body of research documents that individuals who undergo” these efforts “experience significant increases in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and suicide attempts.” A meta-analysis cited in the report found that exposure to conversion therapy was associated with more than a twofold increase in the odds of suicide attempts.

Research from Dr. Caitlin Ryan and the Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University has documented that adolescents who experienced parent-initiated conversion efforts were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide (48%) as peers who experienced no such efforts (22%). When those efforts were combined with conversion interventions by therapists or religious leaders, the attempted-suicide rate climbed to nearly triple, to 63%.

The Trevor Project has reported that LGBTQ+ youth subjected to conversion therapy are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide. Its 2024 “50 State Report” found that 41% of LGBTQ+ youth in Colorado seriously considered suicide in the past year, a figure that underscores the urgency behind HB26-1322’s passage.

The economic costs are similarly stark. A study published in JAMA Pediatrics estimated the total annual cost of sexual orientation and gender identity change efforts among LGBTQ+ youth in the United States at $650 million, with associated downstream harms including substance abuse and suicide attempts generating an estimated total economic burden of $9.23 billion.

None of this has changed because of a Supreme Court ruling. The law changed. The science did not.

“Exploratory Therapy” and the Rebranding Problem

One of the more troubling developments in the post-Chiles landscape is the aggressive promotion of what some practitioners are calling “exploratory therapy” or “exploratory psychotherapy” as an alternative framework for working with gender-questioning youth.

Advocates and medical professionals warn that this framing is largely cosmetic a repackaging of conversion therapy designed to evade legal scrutiny while pursuing the same predetermined outcomes. The Conversion Truth for Families FAQ page puts it plainly: “Exploratory psychotherapy is being promoted as a first-line response to a child saying they are transgender or questioning their gender. But exploratory psychotherapy is just another name for conversion therapy, repackaged to mislead you and increase the odds that you’ll buy into this sinful practice in a moment of fear or confusion.”

The distinction Colorado’s new law draws is useful here. Genuine supportive therapy the kind that helps a young person think, process, and grow without pushing them toward any specific conclusion is and remains entirely legal under HB26-1322. The line the law draws is not about topics or viewpoints. It is about predetermined outcomes. A therapist who supports open, non-coercive exploration of a young person’s identity is engaging in legitimate mental health care. A therapist who enters a session with the goal of steering that young person toward a specific sexual orientation or gender identity, whatever direction that steering runs, is engaging in the practice the law targets.

Rep. Karen McCormick (D-Longmont), a bill sponsor, was frank about the intended effect: “The purpose of this bill is seriously to send a chilling effect to any licensed professional therapist who may think about bringing that practice back.”

What This Means for Parents: A Note on Faith, Fear, and Family

For many Colorado parents, particularly those of faith, the period between the Supreme Court’s ruling and the legislature’s response has been disorienting. The legal landscape shifted seemingly overnight. Organizations with a stake in expanding access to conversion therapy have used the Chiles ruling aggressively in their outreach to parents, framing it as a green light for practices the medical establishment has consistently condemned.

Conversion Truth for Families (CT4F), a platform created to support faith-driven parents navigating questions, has emerged as a trusted counterweight to that messaging. The organization’s free Christian Family Companion guide walks parents through the first 24 hours, first week, first month, and first year after a child shares their struggle, offering practical emotional regulation tools, realistic expectations for each stage, and faith-rooted wisdom for staying grounded in a turbulent time.

Critically, CT4F is explicit about what the post-Chiles moment does and does not mean for families. As the organization notes on its website: “The Supreme Court’s ruling didn’t dispute any of this science. The American Psychological Association expressed deep concern about the ruling’s implications, warning it could have ‘far-reaching implications for consumer safety and professional regulation.'”

As Justice Jackson wrote in dissent, a warning Conversion Truth for Families has amplified for its audience: “The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of scalpel.”

For parents who are faith-guided and genuinely want to do right by their children, the organization draws a clear line between what their faith calls them to love (presence, unconditional relationship) and what conversion therapy actually delivers. Families who have been through it describe a consistent pattern: the practice does not change who a child is. It changes how a child feels about their parents.

Paulette Trimmer, whose son Adam attended multiple conversion programs at her family’s expense and encouragement, testified before the Supreme Court about the relational wreckage that followed. “People don’t realize how damaging this therapy is, not only to the person going through it, but to the parents,” she said. “Parents don’t realize their child is going to come out totally different, and you’re going to regret sending them there. When Adam turned against us, it broke our hearts.” After years of repair, she reflected: “I’m one of the lucky families. We got our son back. Not every family does.”

That testimony and others like it form the backbone of why Conversion Truth for Families frames its work not as a progressive project but as a parental one. The question is not about ideology. It is about what actually keeps families together.

Colorado as a National Model

If Governor Polis signs HB26-1322 and there is every indication he will, Colorado will become the first state in the nation to enact a post-Chiles conversion therapy protection. That makes the legislation significant far beyond the state’s borders.

Advocates estimate that similar bans in more than 20 states now face legal vulnerability following the Supreme Court’s ruling, with the Alliance Defending Freedom signaling plans to challenge them one by one. Colorado’s new law represents a legislative template: how to protect minors from conversion therapy in a way that satisfies the viewpoint-neutrality standard the Court articulated, while also giving survivors a meaningful path to accountability.

Rocky Mountain Equality, one of the state’s leading LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, applauded the bill’s passage in a statement from CEO Mardi Moore: “The passage of HB26-1322 is a clear statement from Colorado’s Legislature that conversion therapy is dangerous and has lasting negative impacts on those who are exposed to it. This law keeps the state ban on the practice in place by complying with Chiles v. Salazar to ensure viewpoint neutrality, and gives survivors additional time to hold practitioners who did harm accountable.”

One Colorado executive director Nadine Bridges echoed that framing: “Colorado’s story is still being written, and today we took another step toward becoming a state where LGBTQIA+ people can live openly, safely, and fully as themselves. This victory belongs to the survivors, advocates, and community members who refused to let this issue be forgotten.”

The Trevor Project’s Senior Director of Law & Policy Casey Pick noted the speed of the legislature’s response: “Following the decision in Chiles v. Salazar, we said that our fight to end conversion therapy in this country was far from over, and we meant it. This new law amends Colorado’s existing protections to address the critiques highlighted by the Supreme Court’s recent decision and, importantly, declares that mental health professionals who abuse the sacred trust placed in them will not be protected from malpractice claims by the years of shame and silence caused by conversion therapy.”

Resources for Colorado Families

Whether you are a parent trying to understand what the current legal landscape means for your child’s care, a survivor trying to understand your rights, or simply someone trying to separate fact from fear-driven marketing, there are credible resources available.

Conversion Truth for Families offers clear, evidence-based information about what conversion therapy is, how to recognize it when it is marketed under a different name, and how to find faith-sensitive alternatives that prioritize your child’s well-being and your family’s relationship. The site is designed specifically for parents who hold traditional faith values and want guidance they can trust guidance that does not ask them to abandon their beliefs, only to protect their children from harm.

The Colorado General Assembly’s fgatull bill text for HB26-1322 is publicly available for any parent or survivor who wants to understand exactly what the law does and does not cover.

For immediate support, The Trevor Project operates a 24/7 crisis line at 1-866-488-7386 for LGBTQ+ youth. PFLAG’s national helpline connects parents and families with local chapters and peer support. The Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State University maintains a library of research-backed resources specifically designed for families navigating these questions across a range of cultural and religious backgrounds.

The Bottom Line

HB26-1322 is not the end of this legal fight. The Alliance Defending Freedom has made clear it intends to challenge conversion therapy protections wherever they exist, and the Chiles v. Salazar ruling has handed them a significant legal tool. Colorado’s new law is a direct and thoughtful response, but it will face its own legal scrutiny in the months ahead.

What will not change, what cannot be changed by any court ruling, is the medical evidence. Conversion therapy does not work. It causes measurable, documented, lasting harm. It fractures families. It elevates suicide risk among the most vulnerable young people. And the organizations that promote it have financial and ideological interests that are not the same as a parent’s interest in their child’s actual flourishing.

Colorado has chosen, again, to act in the interest of its children. For parents across the state still trying to understand what all of this means for their family, organizations like Conversion Truth for Families are doing the hard work of translating that message into language that meets families where they are in their faith, in their fear, and in their love for the child in front of them.