Week after week, a teenage Brandon Long sat in counseling sessions that, in his words, cast his very identity as a kind of failure. Now an ordained minister in northern Kentucky, Long recently shared his story with Kentucky lawmakers, describing years spent in therapy designed to rid him of what counselors called "same-sex attraction." His testimony, delivered in February 2025 before a Kentucky House committee, was a plea against a Republican-sponsored bill to overturn Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s 2024 executive order banning the controversial practice known as conversion therapy for minors.
“Just imagine yourself being told, session after session, that if you remained as you were, you would be rejected,” Long told lawmakers, according to Stateline. He warned that the bill "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." Despite passionate opposition, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the bill and, in March 2025, overrode the governor’s veto.
Conversion therapy, sometimes called "reparative therapy," is a catchall term for attempts—ranging from talk therapy and religious counseling to more extreme methods like electrical shocks and physical isolation—to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, have all denounced the practice as ineffective and harmful. They warn it puts LGBTQ+ individuals at increased risk for depression, substance abuse, suicide, and other mental health issues.
Yet, the political and legal landscape around conversion therapy is shifting rapidly. Since California became the first state to ban conversion therapy for minors in 2012, more than half of U.S. states have enacted bans or restrictions, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit that tracks LGBTQ+-related laws. As of 2025, 23 states and Washington, D.C., prevent licensed health care providers from subjecting minors to conversion therapy, while four others restrict the practice by, for example, blocking public funding. These laws typically impose fines or professional licensing discipline on practitioners, but they often do not prevent clergy or unlicensed counselors from engaging in such counseling.
But this year, conservative majorities in courts, legislatures, and even at the federal level have opened the door for Republican lawmakers and conservative Christian groups to challenge or reverse these bans. In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court made headlines by agreeing to hear a case challenging Colorado’s 2019 conversion therapy ban on free speech grounds—a stark change from its refusals to hear similar cases in 2017 and 2023. The outcome, expected in 2026, could either solidify or undo conversion therapy bans across the country.
Legal challenges are already having an impact. In July 2025, a Virginia court partially struck down the state’s 2020 law banning conversion therapy for minors, favoring conservative Christian organizations. The plaintiffs, John and Janet Raymond—both state-licensed counselors—were represented by the Founding Freedoms Law Center. Their attorney, Josh Hetzler, said in a public news conference that the ruling means, “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.” The kind of talk therapy now permitted can involve conversation, prayer, and sharing of religious scriptures.
Conservative legal firms have also filed lawsuits in Colorado, Michigan, and Virginia on behalf of Christian counselors, arguing that bans on conversion therapy infringe on their free speech and religious liberty. In Missouri, Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey filed a lawsuit in February 2025 to overturn local bans in Jackson County and Kansas City, calling the ordinances “a dangerous overreach” that violate free speech and religious rights. “Our children have a right to therapy that allows for honest, unrestricted conversations, free from transgender indoctrination,” Bailey declared in a statement.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, GOP lawmakers are pushing to roll back the state’s conversion therapy ban enacted in 2023. State Representative Josh Schriver, a Republican, filed bills in August 2025 to repeal what he calls “anti-Christ laws,” including the ban on conversion therapy for youth. In a message to constituents, Schriver wrote, “As legislators, we’re duty-bound to remove statutes that overstep the authority given by our state and federal Constitutions.”
Despite these efforts, not all recent legal battles have gone conservatives’ way. In Wisconsin, Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ administration had been fighting since 2020 to enact a statewide ban on conversion therapy, only to be blocked twice by a Republican-controlled legislative committee. But earlier in 2025, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with Evers, ruling that the legislative committee could not block the rule, effectively clearing the way for a permanent statewide ban.
At least five states have laws or policies that prevent local ordinances from protecting youth from conversion therapy, and some states without such laws are actively challenging municipal bans. The bans themselves, according to Dr. Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in New York City whose research focuses on gender and sexuality, 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.” Drescher, who is also a clinical professor at Columbia University, emphasized the shift in the professional community: “The world has changed. Everybody understands what’s at stake now.”
The American Medical Association has even written model legislation for state lawmakers seeking to ban conversion therapy, underscoring the broad consensus that homosexuality and gender nonconformity are not mental illnesses. R.J. Mills, a representative of the AMA, told Stateline that this reflects the medical community’s firm stance.
For Brandon Long, the Kentucky minister, the stakes are deeply personal. “No one enters conversion therapy willingly,” he told lawmakers. “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 debate over conversion therapy is now at a crossroads, shaped by shifting political winds and a pending Supreme Court decision that could redefine the boundaries of free speech, religious liberty, and the rights of LGBTQ+ youth across the country. As states and localities wrestle with the future of these controversial practices, the stories of those like Long serve as a stark reminder of the human cost behind the legislation and legal arguments. For now, the future of conversion therapy in America hangs in the balance, with advocates and opponents alike bracing for what comes next.
