Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser filed a brief Tuesday urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let the state keep its ban on conversion therapy for minors in place. The brief is asking the Court to uphold a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that affirmed Colorados 2019 ban.Conversion therapy is widely condemned and once included inducing illness or paralysis, delivering electric shocks, or requiring patients to snap rubber bands on their wrists when experiencing attraction to ones own sex. Today, it most often involves pressuring gay teenagers to pursue opposite-sex relationships or pressuring gender non-conforming youth to suppress their identities. Related The Supreme Court conversion therapy case: Heres what you should know Contemporary practices can also isolate children from their families and communities. During legislative hearings on Colorados conversion therapy ban, one witness testified that he was instructed to embrace his correct gender role by spending time exclusively with men and avoiding contact with his mother and sisters for three years.Under Colorado law, providers who engage in conversion therapy face disciplinary action from their licensing boards. However, Weiser noted that no disciplinary actions have been taken since the law went into effect. Never Miss a Beat Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights. Subscribe to our Newsletter today The law is being challenged by Colorado Christian counselor Kaley Chiles, who is being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative law firm classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Chiles is arguing that the ban infringes on her freedom of speech and free exercise of religion.While Chiles has said that she does not seek to cure clients of same-sex attractions or to change clients sexual orientation, she claims that she fears professional discipline if she engages in practices intended to help youth grow in the experience of harmony with ones physical body. Colorado is arguing that Chiles does not have standing to bring the suit because she has not faced any professional discipline and does not engage in any prohibited practices under the law. None of what the therapist is alleging actually appears to violate Colorado law, because she says that shes not trying to change a patients sexual orientation or gender identity, Weiser said.Even if the Supreme Court determines that Chiles has standing to sue, the state contends that the law is constitutional because states have the authority to regulate specific unsafe and ineffective healthcare treatment for public health. Colorados law responded to a growing mental health crisis among Colorados youth to prevent injuryinjury that may not manifest for earsto particularly vulnerable young people, the brief states.Colorado is one of 23 states that ban the harmful practice. While the 9th and 10th Circuits have upheld state bans on conversion therapy, the 11th Circuit has struck down comparable local ordinances in Florida. What is at stake is whether or not the Supreme Court opens up a First Amendment exemption to professional licensing and malpractice systems that are designed to prevent patients from suffering substandard care, and that is the core argument we make in our brief, Weiser said. The Supreme Court has never created such an exemption before. They shouldnt do so now.So-called conversion therapy,is a range of dangerous and discredited practices that falsely claim to change a persons sexual orientation or gender identity or expression, Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement. Such practices have been rejected by every mainstream medical and mental health organization for decades, but due to continuing discrimination and societal bias against LGBTQ+ people, some practitioners continue to conduct conversion therapy.The harm of such practices is well-documented.The American Psychiatric Association has opposed conversion therapy since 1998 and reaffirmed its position in 2020, stating that efforts to change an individuals sexual orientation or gender expression have been shown to be harmful and potentially deadly. According to the Williams Institute, lesbian, gay, and bisexual people who undergo conversion therapy are nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide.Subscribe to theLGBTQ Nation newsletterand be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.