Suit was filed last week in a Michigan federal district court challenging the constitutionality of Michigan statutes that ban counselors from engaging in conversion therapy with minors, particularly as applied to counseling minors regarding their gender identity. The complaint (full text) in Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties v. Whitmer, (WD MI, filed 7/12/2024), alleges that the ban violates counselors' and patients' free speech rights, parents' right to control the upbringing of their children, free exercise rights of plaintiffs and parents, as well as alleging that the statute is void for vagueness. The complaint reads in part:
115. Plaintiffs intend to continue helping young people live consistently with their own religious beliefs on matters of gender identity and sexuality—including young people who desire to align their gender identity with their biological sex, or who desire to refrain from acting on sexual attractions outside the context of male–female marriage.
116. HB 4616 prohibits Plaintiffs from using their professional training to help young people who have these goals....
125. Because Plaintiffs are chilled or prohibited from discussing issues of human sexuality and gender identity, their clients are denied access to ideas they wish to hear and to counseling that would help them live consistently with their own personal, religious, and life goals.
126. Parents of these children are likewise deprived of their right to direct the religious upbringing of their children by obtaining counseling that respects their religious identity.
127. This acutely impacts religious minorities. Such religious minorities are underrepresented among counselors generally, and it is especially difficult to find counselors willing to counsel minors who are struggling to reconcile their faith with their gender identity and sexuality....
Becket Fund issued a press release announcing the lawsuit.
