DENVER–Despite the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) recently slapping down Colorado’s ban on so-called “conversion therapy,” legislative Democrats are taking yet another swing at influencing conversations mental health professionals have with clients around gender identity. This time, it’s the threat of lawsuits at any time in the future, and with no limit on potential damages.
As previously reported by Complete Colorado, SCOTUS in March struck down a 2019 statute barring state licensed therapists from engaging in “efforts to change an individual’s sexual orientation, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction”
The court held that the statute violates First Amendment free speech protections, noting among other issues that it works as a one-way speech limiting street: prohibiting therapists from counseling minors away from gender dysphoria, while not prohibiting any encouragement towards it.
Limitless lawsuits
House Bill 26-1322, ‘Civil Actions for Conversion Therapy Survivors,’ passed the Democrat-controlled Colorado House of Representatives just two days after the SCOTUS ruling. The bill allows an individual who was “injured” by conversion therapy to take the therapist, the individual who hired the therapist, or the mental health entity itself, to court. Acting as a de facto ban, the law removes the statute of limitations with no damage cap, meaning therapists can be taken to court regardless of how long it’s been, with no limit to the amount they can be sued over.
“The existing statute of limitations for professional negligence does not adequately account for the delayed recognition of psychological injury that is characteristic of harm caused by sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts,” the bill language reads.
Republican Rep. Matt Soper, an outspoken opponent of the measure, says the bill still has the effect of chilling speech.
“If this passes, therapists should be put on a notice to talk about nothing in terms of sexuality, sexual preference, or sexual orientation, because they could potentially be sued years later, and sky’s the limit,” Soper told Complete Colorado.
The bill also allows the family of an individual who underwent conversion therapy to bring a lawsuit for up to five years following the individual’s death, which Soper calls unprecedented.
“It is longer than any other area of Colorado law, it’s longer than rape, it’s longer than murder,” Soper said. “To me its mind boggling to tell a murder victim’s family that they have two years to bring a lawsuit but for someone who went through conversion therapy, they could have lived 50 years, then died, then have five years to bring that lawsuit.”
Off to the Senate
While the House rejected a GOP effort to include a damage cap, the bill was modestly amended to acknowledge the SCOTUS ruling, broadening somewhat the meaning of “conversion therapy.” However, the definition of the term remains one-sided in that it does does include conversations in support of gender dysphoria.
“I think senators by in large are a little bit more weary of immediately undoing what the US Supreme Court did on an 8-1 decision,” Rep. Soper told Complete Colorado, hopeful that the bill’s pace will be slowed as it moves to the Senate.
The main House sponsors, Rep. Karen McCormick and Rep. Alex Valdez, did not return requests for comment. The bill is not yet scheduled for a Senate hearing.
