Brandon Long remembers the sting of rejection all too well. As a teenager in Kentucky, he sat through counseling sessions that, in his words, “framed his identity as a failure.” The message was unrelenting: if he remained true to himself, he would be rejected. Now an ordained minister in northern Kentucky, Long recounted his experience to state lawmakers this past February, urging them not to roll back protections for LGBTQ+ youth. “Just imagine yourself being told, session after session, that if you remained as you were, you would be rejected,” he told the Kentucky House committee, describing the years he spent in therapy designed to rid him of his "same-sex attraction."
The practice Long endured is known as conversion therapy—a catchall term for efforts to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ+ people. These efforts range from talk therapy and religious counseling to more extreme and discredited methods like electrical shocks, pain-inducing aversion therapy, and physical isolation. Major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, have unanimously condemned conversion therapy as both ineffective and harmful, linking it to increased risks of depression, substance use, suicide, and other mental health issues for LGBTQ+ people. “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,” Dr. Jack Drescher, a psychiatrist and clinical professor at Columbia University, told Stateline.
Despite this consensus, the political winds are shifting. In March 2025, Kentucky’s Republican-controlled legislature passed a bill to cancel Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s 2024 executive order banning conversion therapy for minors. The legislature overrode Beshear’s veto, making Kentucky one of several states where conservative lawmakers are seeking to roll back or challenge existing bans. Long warned lawmakers 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.”
Kentucky is hardly alone. According to the Movement Advancement Project, more than half of U.S. states have banned or restricted conversion therapy for minors since California became the first to do so in 2012. As of 2025, 23 states and Washington, D.C. prevent licensed health care providers from subjecting minors to conversion therapy, and four more restrict public funding for such services. Yet, the legal landscape is becoming more fractured. In March 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging Colorado’s 2019 conversion therapy ban on free speech grounds. The decision, expected in 2026, could upend or solidify conversion therapy bans across the country. It’s a marked shift from previous years: in 2017, the Court declined to hear a challenge to California’s ban, and in 2023, it refused to take up a similar case from Washington.
Legal battles are playing out at the state level as well. In July 2025, a Virginia court partially struck down the state’s 2020 law banning conversion therapy for minors, a move celebrated by conservative Christian organizations. The court’s consent decree allows counselors to engage in talk-based conversion therapy with minors, including conversation, prayer, and sharing of religious scriptures. “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,” said Josh Hetzler, the Raymonds’ attorney, at a public news conference.
Meanwhile, in Michigan, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill in July 2025 to repeal the state’s ban on conversion therapy. State Rep. Josh Schriver, who filed the bill, said in a Substack post to constituents, “As legislators, we’re duty-bound to remove statutes that overstep the authority given by our state and federal Constitutions.” Conservative legal firms have filed lawsuits in multiple states on behalf of Christian counselors, arguing that such bans violate free speech and religious freedom. These legal challenges often assert that practitioners should not risk losing their careers for providing services informed by their faith.
Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey has also joined the fray, filing suit in February 2025 to overturn local conversion therapy bans in Jackson County and Kansas City, Missouri. “Our children have a right to therapy that allows for honest, unrestricted conversations, free from transgender indoctrination,” Bailey said, calling the ordinances “a dangerous overreach” that violate free speech and religious liberty rights.
Yet, not all recent developments have favored opponents of conversion therapy bans. In Wisconsin, Democratic Governor Tony Evers’ administration has been pushing since 2020 for a statewide ban proposed by the agency that oversees provider licensing. The ban was blocked twice by a Republican-controlled legislative committee, but after a protracted legal battle, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in July 2025 that the committee had overreached and could not block the rule, effectively clearing the way for a permanent ban. This ruling marked a significant victory for LGBTQ+ advocates and a setback for conservative opponents in the state.
The nuances of these bans are often overlooked in heated debates. State laws typically discipline licensed practitioners who attempt conversion therapy on minors, but they do not necessarily prevent clergy or unlicensed counselors from offering such counseling. As Dr. Drescher noted, “The bans are more of a public statement of acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, rather than a commonly used preventive measure.” The American Medical Association has even provided model legislation for state lawmakers, underscoring the medical community’s consensus that neither homosexuality nor gender nonconformity are mental illnesses. R.J. Mills, a representative from the association, pointed to this consensus in a statement to Stateline.
Some states have gone further, passing laws or policies that prohibit or deter local-level ordinances aimed at protecting youth from conversion therapy. In others, state officials are actively challenging municipal bans. The patchwork of laws and ongoing litigation has left LGBTQ+ youth and their families in a state of uncertainty, with protections varying widely depending on where they live.
For people like Brandon Long, the stakes are deeply personal. “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,” he told lawmakers. The debate, he argued, is not just about policy, but about the fundamental well-being and dignity of young people.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to weigh in and states continue to battle over the future of conversion therapy, the nation’s approach to LGBTQ+ rights and protections stands at a crossroads. The outcome will determine not only the legality of a controversial practice, but also the message sent to LGBTQ+ youth across America about acceptance, identity, and belonging.
