Brandon Long remembers the relentless counseling sessions of his youth as a time when his very identity was put on trial. Week after week, he was told that his same-sex attraction was something to be fixed—a failure, rather than a part of who he was. Now an ordained minister in northern Kentucky, Long stood before lawmakers in February 2025, sharing his story in hopes of preventing others from enduring what he did. “Just imagine yourself being told, session after session, that if you remained as you were, you would be rejected,” Long testified, urging legislators to uphold Kentucky’s ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors.
But in a sign of the changing tides, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill to overturn the 2024 executive order banning conversion therapy for minors—then overrode the governor’s veto in March. This legislative move is part of a broader national trend, where conservative lawmakers and legal groups are working to roll back state-level bans on a practice that’s been condemned by every major medical and mental health organization worldwide, including the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. According to Stateline, Long warned that the new Kentucky law “creates a legal shield for conversion therapy, allowing parents to force their children into a practice condemned by every major medical and mental health organization worldwide.”
Conversion therapy—which encompasses a range of controversial efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ+ people—can take many forms. Sometimes it’s talk therapy or religious counseling; in other cases, it has included electrical shocks, pain-inducing aversion therapy, or even physical isolation. The American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry have all denounced the practice as ineffective and dangerous, linking it to increased risks of depression, substance use, suicide, and other mental health challenges.
Since California became the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors in 2012, more than half of U.S. states have followed suit, either banning or restricting the practice. As of 2025, 23 states and Washington, D.C., prevent licensed healthcare providers from subjecting minors to conversion therapy, while four additional states restrict public funding for such services, according to the Movement Advancement Project. These laws typically impose fines or threaten professional license discipline for practitioners, but often do not prevent clergy or unlicensed counselors from engaging in such counseling. Dr. Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst whose research focuses on gender and sexuality, told Stateline, “The bans are reinforcements of the belief that if homosexuality is not a mental disorder or disease, there’s no reason to pretend you can treat it, and anybody who tries is acting outside the mainstream of science.”
Despite the medical consensus, the legal and political landscape is shifting. Conservative majorities in courts, state legislatures, and even at the federal level are opening the door for renewed challenges to conversion therapy bans. In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging Colorado’s 2019 ban on freedom of speech grounds—a significant departure from its earlier refusals to take up similar cases in California (2017) and Washington (2023). The high court’s decision, expected in 2026, could have sweeping implications, potentially reversing or solidifying conversion therapy bans across the country.
Recent months have seen a flurry of legal and legislative activity. In July 2025, a Virginia court partially struck down the state’s 2020 law banning conversion therapy for minors, delivering a win to conservative Christian organizations. GOP lawmakers in Michigan introduced bills to repeal the state’s 2023 ban, while Missouri’s Republican attorney general filed suit in February to overturn local ordinances banning conversion therapy in Kansas City. “Our children have a right to therapy that allows for honest, unrestricted conversations, free from transgender indoctrination,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement, calling the ordinances “a dangerous overreach” that violate free speech and religious liberty rights.
Conservative legal groups have been at the forefront of these challenges, arguing that bans on conversion therapy infringe on both free speech and religious liberty. In Virginia, the Founding Freedoms Law Center represented counselors John and Janet Raymond in a case that resulted in a consent decree allowing talk-based conversion therapy with minors. Josh Hetzler, the Raymonds’ attorney, said at a news conference, “With this court order, every counselor in Virginia will now be able to speak freely, truthfully and candidly with clients who are seeking to have those critical conversations about their identity, and to hear faith-based insights from trusted professionals.”
Legislators themselves are increasingly citing their Christian faith as a motivation for rolling back bans. Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver, a Republican, recently filed a package of bills aimed at repealing what he calls “anti-Christ laws,” including the state’s conversion therapy ban for youth. In a message to constituents, Schriver argued, “As legislators, we’re duty-bound to remove statutes that overstep the authority given by our state and federal Constitutions.”
Yet, not all efforts to overturn bans have succeeded. In Wisconsin, Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ administration has been working since 2020 to enact a statewide conversion therapy ban. Though a Republican-controlled legislative committee twice blocked the rule, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with the governor in early 2025, ruling that the committee had overreached and clearing the way for a permanent ban.
For LGBTQ+ advocates and medical professionals, these bans are more than just legal restrictions—they’re public affirmations of acceptance. “The world has changed,” Dr. Drescher told Stateline. “Everybody understands what’s at stake now.” The American Medical Association has even written model legislation for state lawmakers, reflecting the medical community’s broad consensus that homosexuality and gender nonconformity are not mental illnesses requiring treatment.
Nonetheless, the reality on the ground is more complicated. State bans often don’t prevent clergy or unlicensed counselors from offering conversion therapy, and at least five states have laws or policies that block local ordinances designed to protect youth. Some states without such laws have gone after municipalities that have enacted their own bans. The bans themselves are rarely used as preventive measures, but serve as important public statements, reinforcing the message that LGBTQ+ people are not broken or in need of fixing.
Brandon Long, reflecting on his own experience, told lawmakers, “No one enters conversion therapy willingly. The only reason a child would go through it is because a trusted authority in their life—a parent, a pastor or a therapist—has told them that they are broken and need to be fixed.”
The coming year will likely prove pivotal. With the Supreme Court set to rule on the Colorado case and legal battles unfolding in statehouses and courtrooms nationwide, the future of conversion therapy bans—and the message society sends to LGBTQ+ youth—hangs in the balance.