51 Comments
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Janet's avatar

Kagan and Sotomayor are idiots. I expect the other 6 to side with the genocidal maniacs called the Republican party, but honestly I thought they might be more interested in saving children's lives than in some pedantic argument about "free speech" because some religious nutter's rights are more important than the children subjected to this torture's rights.

BasicallyGir's avatar

Agreed, I think it is a mistake to expect any sort of consistency from the conservative majority. Strategic mistake.

Janet's avatar

Oh I expect them to make the worst possible decisions based on whatever screws marginalized groups and elevates religious zealotry.

Tracy's avatar

Supreme Court missed the point!

Talk therapy is not “free speech”. Talk therapy is medical practice. Conversion therapy is medical malpractice.

Fuck this timeline.

Jessi E's avatar

The states should issue mandatory warnings for conversion therapy, like cigarettes and vaping e.g., this type of therapy is known to result in increased risk of suicide and death. That's free speech too!

Robyn Donovan's avatar

This is terrible…

Talia Perkins's avatar

And this is the same thing as SCOTUS declaring there can be no such thing as fraud in medical care or advertising for it with respect to communicative media, no fraud is possible with the written or spoken word. They have just stripped states and implicitly the federal government of all such authority to criminalize fraudulent medical claims as to what is proper medical care.

I fully believe the midterms will render a 55/45 count of Ds/Rs in the Senate, and a House willing to impeach again and this time the Senate Rs will a good third of them be sweating bullets and may be willing to remove Trump! & Co. root and branch. This can include removing judges and SCOTUS justices.

janinsanfran's avatar

The Supreme Court empowers quacks. What's next? Horse dewormer for all?

Marshall Ananiadis's avatar

I hope so. Natural selection...

Mike Gelt's avatar

The Supreme Court’s decision striking down Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy represents a profound failure to fully consider the real-world harm caused by these practices.

While the Court framed its ruling primarily through the lens of free speech, it overlooked the overwhelming medical and psychological evidence showing that conversion therapy inflicts lasting emotional, psychological, and sometimes physical damage — particularly on vulnerable LGBTQ+ youth.

Major medical and mental health organizations have long condemned conversion therapy as unsafe, ineffective, and harmful.

By prioritizing a narrow interpretation of speech rights over established medical consensus and patient protection, the Court has created a dangerous gap in safeguards for young people.

Colorado must now act swiftly and responsibly to revise its legislation so that it is grounded firmly in medical regulation and professional standards of care rather than framed as a restriction on speech.

States retain both the authority and the obligation to regulate licensed healthcare practices to protect patients from harm.

This ruling should not mark the end of protections — it should be a call to strengthen them.

The focus must remain where it belongs: on preventing medically discredited practices that endanger the health, dignity, and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ individuals.

Jackie Batterson's avatar

This Supreme Court has no concern for Americans rights.

Brianna Amore's avatar

And it DEFINITELY has no concern for the rights of queer folks, that's for sure.

Lee Work's avatar

So bans of gender affirming talk therapy for minors (shown to be highly effective treatment) = legal. Bans of conversion therapy for minors (shown to be highly deleterious to health) = illegal.

Make it make sense. This is what happens when conservatives decide their feelings are more important than facts. We are being pulled backwards in time by these asshats.

Linden Jordan's avatar

Yes, I was wondering if anyone else sees the irony in the decision compared to the ban on gender affirming care. Irony no longer exists as a guiding light.

Brianna Amore's avatar

Conservatives AND two Liberal turncoats.

Joan the Dork's avatar

𝘘𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴. With "allies" like these, who needs enemies?

Brianna Amore's avatar

And they just boil it all down to a simple "First Amendment" issue as though merely talking does no harm to a person, despite the AMPLE evidence that Conversion Therapy is EXTREMELY harmful and dangerous to its victims. It's like they have these blinders on as to just how dangerous speech can be, especially in an environment that is literally hostile to a queer youth's mere existence.

Joan the Dork's avatar

I thought better of those two. I expect this sort of backwards bullshit from the conservatives, but having Sotomayor and Kagan shit on us like this hurts. I hate having to be as wary of our so-called friends as we are of our enemies.

Devin's avatar
3hEdited

If efficacy is irrelevant when it comes to free speech, what’s to stop insurance companies from saving tons of money by making conversion therapy a preferred treatment for chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and hypertension, especially in light of past rulings favoring a company’s right to free speech?

Stephanie Keeley's avatar

I say that it’s time to tell the ASSHOLIOS of the Fascist Court of Trumpism to get STUFFED! 🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽The MAGAT CULT is the entity that needs “CONVERSION THERAPY!” They still don’t understand that we outnumber them by the millions!!! I say it’s time for a revolution in America! DOWN WITH THE TYRANNY OF TRUMPISM! NO MORE COSPLAY FROM THE BIGGEST LIARS ON THIS PLANET!! 🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽😈🔥🔥🌈🌈🌈

Roisin Aoife Brennan's avatar

Forced Conversion Therapy is Eugenics. Pure and simple. This is infuriating.

Kim's avatar

We need to have conversion therapy for republicans. So sad for this to happen today.

Jayna Sheats's avatar

That's more serious than you might think. The journal reports referenced in this post (and others which can be followed from them) make it clear that ultraright-wing politics literally fits the professional definition (a la DSM-V) of mental illness (narcissistic personality disorder).

https://jaynasheats.substack.com/p/yes-science-denial-is-a-mental-illness

Kim's avatar

Jayna, I 100% agree. I have family members who cannot see the writing on the wall with where the republican party is and has been headed for quite a while. They will go down fighting with it while we watch them, from a distance because of it. Not for lack of attempting to reason with them.

Jackie Batterson's avatar

How in the world is voting for conversion therapy also for freedom of speech. These people are truly evil.

Kim Bart's avatar

It seems to me they are doing everything to make trans people "self deport" by suicide. It is disturbing. So glad my trans daughter is 23 and not under 19. Hang in there everyone! Sending love to all.

Sarah F's avatar

Thank you, Justice Brown. As for the other two, I have no words.

Al Sullivan's avatar

As horrible as this decision is for the transgender community, it will also protect therapists and doctors who do provide gender affirming therapy to clients, which both the Heritage Foundation and Republicans nationwide would love to outlaw or prohibit.

Linden Jordan's avatar

NO, it won't protect GAC. The rationale will be totally different in some contorted SCOTUS legal mumbo jumbo. Consistency is no longer important in legal analysis. Everything is goal directed. This is the result of Trumpian "logic". Say what ever you want to reach the result you desire. No one can do a damned thing about it.

Brianna Amore's avatar

Also how is gender expression NOT free speech? I would really like to hear SCOTUS' opinion on that one.

Linden Jordan's avatar

So would I. They are so talented at bullshit!!!

errno's avatar

That's not how conservatives work. To them, law is a facade to play at consistency and fairness. While in actuality the rules exist to bind us and protect them. GAC will be excluded from this protection because they oppose GAC. They'll just come up with a different rationale for it so they can still pretend to be fair and consistent.