Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has filed a legal complaint against two local ordinances that ban “conversion therapy,” also known as sexual orientation change efforts therapy, for LGBT-identified minors.
Last week, Bailey filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri against Kansas City and Jackson County over their respective bans.
The complaint accuses the two municipalities of violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting “different views” on sexual orientation and gender identity.
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In addition to Bailey, plaintiffs include licensed counselors who are Christian and practice SOCE therapy within Kansas City and Jackson County.
“These ordinances prohibit the Counselors from helping minors achieve comfort between their gender identity and sex and reduce unwanted same-sex attraction. At the same time, they permit and encourage counselors who assist children in achieving the opposite goals,” reads the suit in part.
“The U.S. Constitution protects the freedom to speak and to hear—even in the counseling office and even when the message spoken is one that (though historically widespread) may now be disfavored by some governments.”
In a statement, Bailey said he believes “children have a right to therapy that allows for honest, unrestricted conversations, free from transgender indoctrination.”
“These ordinances represent a dangerous overreach, forcing children and counselors to conform to a radical transgender agenda. I will not stand by while Jackson County violates Missourians’ constitutional rights to free speech and religious liberty,” he added.
For his part, Jackson County Executive Frank White Jr. has stated that he and his peers “will defend our law banning the harmful practice of conversion therapy to the fullest extent of the law.”
“All leading professional medical and mental health associations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, unequivocally reject ‘conversion therapy’ as a legitimate medical treatment due to its proven psychological harm,” White argued.
“To our LGBTQ+ friends, family, and neighbors: you are loved, you are valued, and we will never stop fighting to ensure you have a safe place here. … We will not allow fear or prejudice to dictate public policy. We stand on the side of love, equality, and human dignity.”
Kansas City banned the practice in 2019, while Jackson County did likewise in 2023, according to the Kansas City-based media outlet KSHB 41 News.
In recent years, several states have moved to ban the practice, which also goes by the names “reparative therapy” or SOCE.
Legal challenges to such bans have had mixed results, with some local ordinances being struck down while state-level prohibitions have survived judicial review.
Last November, a Christian counselor named Kaley Chiles asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review her legal challenge to Colorado’s ban on SOCE therapy, citing First Amendment concerns.
The CHANGED Movement, a Christian group composed of individuals who formerly identified as LGBT, filed an amicus brief in support of Chiles.
“The Colorado government’s plan to displace any idea about counseling people with same-sex attraction and gender incongruence that doesn’t conform to its own narrow vision is gravely harmful,” argued the group.
“As the personal stories of members of the CHANGED Movement that follow illustrate,
people who sincerely desire help defying their feelings of same-sex attraction or aligning their gender with their biological sex are cut off from good and helpful
ideas that improve their lives.”
