Conversion Therapy (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

Attorney Sam Grover describes FFRF’s court victory demanding the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Arkansas capitol. Then, activist Lucas F. W. Wilson, a survivor of “conversion therapy,” discusses his book Shame-Sex Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-april-2-2026/

Supreme Court strikes down conversion therapy ban - POLITICO

The case, Chiles v. Salazar, was brought by Kaley Chiles, a licensed counselor who described herself as a practicing Christian who sometimes provides counseling informed by her faith. Chiles said she wished to offer talk therapy to minors who want to reduce feelings of same-sex attraction or feel more comfortable in their bodies. 

Chiles isn't licensed to prescribe medicine or perform surgery, so the ruling does not directly impact states' power to regulate those sorts of interventions…

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/31/supreme-court-conversion-therapy-ban-ruling-00851858 

 

What’s at stake in the Supreme Court conversion therapy case

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OCTujT3G-WE

 

“Everything Opposed to Trump Is Terrorism Now” + Conversion Therapy Goes to Court (Andrew Seidel; One Nation, Indivisible podcast Episode #033)

Andrew dives into the Trump “Antifa / Domestic Terrorism” order to unpack one of the worst examples of Christian Nationalism from the Trump admin so far. Plus, conversion “therapy” practices head to the Supreme Court because of the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian Nationalist legal outfit doing all kinds of damage. 

• White House Memo Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence

Interview: 

https://www.podbean.com/ew/dir-9bei9-27f0486d

Supreme Court appears skeptical of Colorado 'conversion therapy' ban - ABC News

"No court has ever held a law like this implicates the First Amendment," concluded Stevenson. "The law applies only to treatments, that is, only when a licensed professional is delivering clinical care to an individual patient … A state cannot lose its power to regulate the very professionals that it licenses just because they are using words."

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/supreme-court-appears-skeptical-colorado-conversion-therapy-ban/story

 

Christian group ‘deceived’ supreme court about LGBTQ+ research, cited scholars say

"It's deceptive," Rosky said of ADF's selective quotations. "Lawyers owe a duty of candor to the court. You cannot offer false evidence, and if you do so accidentally and find out, you have to correct that … They claim our work supports conversion therapy when our work clearly and specifically condemns conversion therapy on the same page they're citing."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/06/alliance-defending-freedom-supreme-court-conversion-therapy

 

The Supreme Court fight over whether gay and trans people can be “cured” | Vox

Are therapists protected by the First Amendment during talk therapy sessions with their clients? And are these free speech protections so robust that they prevent the government from regulating talk therapy to ensure that it does not harm patients or depart from professional standards of care?

 That's the central question in Chiles v. Salazar, which the Supreme Court will hear on October 7. And, while the idea that incompetent or even abusive talk therapists may be immune from regulation altogether may seem extreme, there is a very real chance that this Court will embrace that uncompromising position…

https://www.vox.com/politics/463357/supreme-court-conversion-therapy-chiles-salazar

 

Catholic Church Doesn't Know What to Do With Gay People

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWl_yVn1Lxc

Pope Francis: Both Candidates are ”Against Life” (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Atheist podast #549)

— Pope Francis pushes false claim that both presidential candidates are “against life.” (3:15)

— Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear courageously bans “conversion therapy” on minors. (14:08)

— Pastor claims he miraculously cured a man hospitalized due to voting for Democrats. (26:05)

— In Ohio, taxpayer dollars are being used to expand Christian schools. (36:56)

— South Carolina Supreme Court strikes down voucher scheme giving tax dollars to private schools. (47:40)

— Atheists to court: It’s okay to ban “faith statements” in taxpayer-funded Minnesota program. (55:31)
Interview: 

https://friendlyatheistpodcast.com/2024/09/19/pope-francis-both-candidates-are-against-life/

Ugandan president signs one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ bills into law | CNN

The bill includes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality' which includes sex with a minor, having sex while HIV positive and incest. 

The bill criminalizes sex education for the gay community and makes it illegal not to expose what it calls perpetrators of aggravated homosexuality to the police. It calls for "rehabilitation"-- widely discredited conversion therapy -- for gay offenders...

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/29/africa/museveni-assents-homosexuality-bill-intl/index.html

I went through ‘conversion therapy’ – no trans person should face that torture again

…I know first-hand that "conversion therapy" doesn't work. But it does destroy people's self-worth, pick them apart, mentally make them doubt themselves, make them confused. There is no set of guidelines for trans conversion practices, there is no manual, no Nice clinical guidance. These so-called "therapists" have no idea what they are doing…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/28/conversion-therapy-trans-person-torture-uk-government

A federal court struck down a Florida ban on conversion therapy | TheHill

...The decision struck down a law that prohibits therapists from engaging in counseling or any therapy "with a goal of changing a minor's sexual orientation, reducing a minor's sexual or romantic attractions (at least to others of the same gender or sex), or changing a minor's gender identity or expression."...

https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/527437-a-federal-court-struck-down-a-florida-ban-on-conversion

A Conversion Therapy Program Founder Comes Out — And Apologizes (On Point)

McKrae Game, who founded one of the largest conversion therapy programs, has come out as gay and is apologizing for the harm he has done. He’s with us.
Interview:
https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2019/09/06/mckrae-game-conversion-therapy

Andrew Wommack Says 'Political Correctness Is Nothing but AntiChrist - RWW News

Andrew Wommack says that efforts to ban so-called "conversion therapy" are part of an anti-Christ effort to destroy morality....
https://youtu.be/cGbG8LwScwg

Troye Sivan Hopes 'Boy Erased' Reaches All Parents - YouTube

Singer and actor Troye Sivan stars in a new film about gay 'conversion therapy' and hopes it will serve as a warning to any parents considering subjecting their child to the practice....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rztg2dkRQ9I&t=0s

‘I still have flashbacks’: the ‘global epidemic’ of LGBT conversion therapy | World news | The Guardian

It sounds like a historical horror, but ‘treatment’ for sexual orientation remains legal in most of the world, including the UK....
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/08/i-still-have-flashbacks-the-global-epidemic-of-lgbt-conversion-therapy

‘Miseducation Of Cameron Post’ Creators Take Aim At Gay Conversion Therapy (Terry Gross, Fresh Air)

'The Miseducation of Cameron Post' is a new film about a high school girl who's sent to a Christian gay conversion therapy center after she's caught kissing another girl. We talk with filmmaker, Desiree Akhavan, and

Emily Danforth who wrote the novel that the film's based on. Akhavan is bisexual, and her parents are Iranian immigrants. "I didn't even hear of one Iranian homosexual my whole life," she tells Terry Gross. "And when I came out, it was like coming out as a leprechaun or a unicorn. It was like a fictitious thing."
Interview:
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/25/632323957/cameron-post-creators-take-aim-at-gay-conversion-therapy

Nearly 700,000 Americans Have Been Subjected To Conversion Therapy, Report Finds | HuffPost

A new report reveals troubling statistics regarding the medically denounced practice....

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/conversion-therapy-lgbtq-youth-study_us_5a6f549ee4b0ddb658c929e4

Trump judicial nominee said transgender children are part of 'Satan's plan', defended 'conversion therapy' - CNNPolitics

In a pair of 2015 speeches, President Donald Trump's nominee for a federal judgeship in Texas described transgender children as evidence of "Satan's plan," lamented that states were banning conversion therapy and argued that sanctioning same-sex marriage would lead to polygamy and bestiality.....
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/20/politics/kfile-jeff-mateer-lgbt-remarks/index.html

Trump judicial nominee claimed 'Satan's plan is working' over lawsuit protecting transgender student

Donald Trump’s pick for a federal judicial seat in Texas labeled a lawsuit protecting transgender rights "Satan's plan" and extolled the virtues of the dangerous and discredited practice of conversion therapy during two separate speeches in 2015. Jeff Mateer, who presently serves as First Assistant Attorney General of Texas, is nothing short of a fire-breathing homophobe. ....
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/1700081